


Let it burn

by DWilde1891



Category: Captain America (Movies), Daredevil (TV), Deadpool - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst, Established Relationship, Fluff and Smut, Humor, M/M, Oral Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Switching, Warning: Loki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-12-13
Packaged: 2018-07-11 10:25:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7044592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DWilde1891/pseuds/DWilde1891
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Tony laid eyes on Loki, God of Fire, Lies, Chaos and General Assholery was at a gala thrown in honour of some British Royals in New York. He was the entertainment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This my first Marvel fic and I'm not totally sure about it. My knowledge of the comic books is sketchy at best, all I've got is the films and copious amounts of reading round the subject to go on.
> 
> So please be kind! And as always, comments and pointers are always entirely welcome.

The first time Tony laid eyes on Loki, God of Fire, Lies, Chaos and General Assholery was at a gala thrown in honour of some British Royals in New York. He was the entertainment.

It’d been an excruciating couple of hours. Stuffy and self important. Pepper gently blushed and giggling as she flirted with Prince William while arms dealers and Chief Executives of NGO’s schmoozed each other under the guise of off the record negotiation. Just as he was getting ready to call it a night the music shifted. The soft agreeable quartet replaced with the rush of a fast, folky violin.

There was a beat of silence as the mood started to shift. The wait staff got distracted. The important people demanding drinks and nibbles were frustrated, masks slipping, tempers shortening. Tony sipped from his whiskey and watched an amicable conversation between the mayor and his Chief of Police descended into teeth bared snapping. Someone slapped someone. A glass was smashed and British security cleared out their charges.

It was messy after that. The guise of civility stripped away as personal views overcame political good. It was entertaining to watch the Chief Executive of UNICEF lay into the representative of an oil conglomerate while that music played on in the background. It made Tony itchy. He was almost certain notes were being pulled from that violin that shouldn't strictly have been possible. Math and music were the same after all.

With one final electrifying finish the music stopped. The room, stunned into silence, suddenly rushed into awareness and with one swoop the most powerful people in the New York turned on their heel and fled. Most of them on their phones, already on damage control. He caught a glimpse of red hair as Pepper made her escape. The phone vibrating in his pocket no doubt detailing her excuses. 

When the silence rang around them, Tony clapped hard and whistled as the then unknown violinist hopped lightly off the stage and strode into the light. Tall, broad shouldered, with neat raven hair and glittering eyes so deep and green he could see them from across the room. Totally fucking hot. 

“You always clear a room like that?”

A wicked knife of a smile and a bow raised to point at him, “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to offer me a drink?”

“Do I look like a barman to you?”

The look he received was flat and disdainful. Point taken, he hopped over the bar and did a quick review of what was on offer and decided on a martini. Gin. Lime. No olives. He didn’t seem like that kind of guy. The violinist jumped up onto a stool to watch with some mild intrigue as he gathered glasses, ice, and stirred the drink together. With the bow set aside, he plucked absently at the strings with his fingertips, releasing the odd discordant note among the natural melody, setting Tony’s teeth on edge each time.

“You really gotta do that?” he demanded. 

“I suppose not.” he placed the violin aside, it looked well used, old, yet gleaming brightly beneath the chandeliers like any other well cared for piece of equipment, “If it unsettles you.”

Tony flicked him a look. The suit he wore was pale grey, crisp white shirt beneath, open at the neck, revealing a tease of collarbone. Bespoke tailoring. Quality material. 

“I’m Tony Stark. Nothing unsettles me.” he slipped the martini over. 

The guy appraised him with bright eyes, sipping thoughtfully from his drink as long fingers rested absently on his violin, “I was at your most recent exposition. I have to say, your missiles are a work of art.”

Tony flashed an insincere grin, “If you’re buying you’ll have to enter through the automatic doors like everyone else. Get in line.” he leant forward, bringing them closer together, “But between you and me, flirt with the right people and they just might be able to give you a store discount. No proof no record just good old fashioned I scratch your back you scratch mine.”

Thin lips drew into a smile, dark eyes glittering and Tony felt his heart start to pound with a thrill of something it would take him years to fully identify, “What would you like in exchange?”

He reached out and in a flash his wrist was gripped by long, white fingers, “Well look at that.” 

“Stark.” the tone was indulgent yet commanding, fingers trailing softly away, leaving him dizzy, a little fluttery, like a teenager with their first crush. Or what a teenager with their first crush was supposed to be like. Tony had skipped dewey eyed innocence and jumped straight into narcissistic hedonism without looking back. Until now. Apparently.

“Yeah?” 

“Your bargain?”

Tony dared himself to look up, keep breathing and managed to smile, “I was gonna ask for the name of your tailor...but now I kinda want something else.”

“Oh?” another razor smile, “And what would that be?”

“For you to fuck my ass so hard I forget my own name, and I’m a colossal narcissist, my name is everywhere, so that’s gonna take some work.”

The guy leant forward, so close their lips were almost brushing and fuck he smelt good, exotic, a combination he knew but couldn’t recollect, “You forget one thing Stark.”

“I’m a genius. I never forget anything.”

“I have no need of your weapons.” and he pulled back, sweeping off the stool and onto his feet with one smooth move, violin in hand as he gazed at Tony with that gleam in his eye, “However, I could be persuaded to take you to bed.”

Tony stayed where he was and looked up beneath his lashes, he knew how long and sultry they were, he’d been using them as a tease and deflection since he was a teenager, “You mean I gotta buy your time?”

“I mean it’ll take more than a drink and some light flirtation for you to win my favour.” another lip curl, another throb of his heart, “You have a reputation.”

“Billionaire, playboy, magnate, inventor, Merchant of Death. Pick one.” he could feel fire starting to burn through his veins, hot light that made his chest tight, head exploding with ideas and opportunities.

“No.” a soft desist he could feel brushing against the delicate skin of his throat, pressing like a knife, “That gamble is yours.”

Tony surveyed him again. This impossible musician whose name he didn’t even know. Regal, enigmatic, mischievous and dangerous. Used to being appraised, mistrusted even, but confident that it wouldn’t affect the outcome. If he didn’t know better he’d call diplomat, or spy. But then why would he empty a room full of potential secrets? What would he gain? The sum of his parts did not form a logical conclusion, and Tony hated that more than anything else. They weren’t done yet. 

He pulled out his cell and called Happy, telling him to meet them out front. The guy remained still, just watching him with faint traces of amusement. Now he had to put on a show, he was ready to be a leading man again. Striding out from behind the bar with a bottle of gin in hand, Tony sauntered ahead, threw a look over his shoulder he knew was cocky and infuriating, “Sweet cheeks Tony Stark doesn’t need to gamble.”

“Is ‘Tony Stark’ capable of talking outside the third person?” he drawled, trailing after with a benevolent kind of interest.

Grinning, he swung round, arms open as he walked backwards, “Who else’s name would I call out during sex?”

“If you’re lucky Stark,” he purred, taking the bottle from his loose fingers and smirking, “It will be mine.”

Years later, standing in the penthouse of his new tower with Coulson and Pepper trading veiled insults at his back, Tony could identify that as the moment he had been well and truly fucked. Because he knew something wasn’t right. All the warning bells were there, and he’d just ignored them. The thrill of mystery more important than self preservation and fuck, there’s not a chance Tony would not take that time back for the world. 

The world Loki was now threatening. The world, after Afghanistan, he’d sworn to protect.


	2. Chapter 2

The battle happened. New York was a mess. The Avengers were a thing now. So secure in their victory they could show up in casual clothes to watch as Loki was returned to Asgard, in muzzle and chains, smirking, quiet and undaunted. Tony scratched his beard, fidgeted, looked away, looked back and before he had even really finished reaching a conclusion he was shoving Thor and the tesseract aside, “Don’t. This is a mistake.” he glared at Loki, “Whatever you're planning it stops. Now."

Loki merely raised an eyebrow, gesturing lightly with his fingers towards the chains and muzzle as though they made him powerless somehow. 

"Man of Iron I must return Loki to Asgard." Thor said, voice rumbling and confused.

"No, because that's exactly where he wants to go." he spoke slowly, not daring to look away from Loki's cold, maddening stare, "Isn't it Lokes?"

Nostrils flaring, Loki gestured, the chains and muzzle dropped. Thor's eyes widened and he took a step forward, only for Loki to blast him away with one hand, muttering, "I always did hate that nickname."

Tony realised he'd been left holding the tesseract, as it were, and Loki was advancing. There were bullets bouncing off Loki’s leather armour, Captain America running forward only to be batted away and thrown over the bridge in a move Loki must have stolen from Dirty Dancing it was so flawless. 

Snake fast, Loki reached out and snatched the container, cracking it open with one snap so he could grasp the cube between long, beautiful fingers. Running out of time, Tony grasped a forearm and hissed urgently, "How much trouble are you in?"

Loki glared at him, "More than you can possibly imagine." he smirked, "You never could leave well enough alone Stark." and he vanished into nothing. With the tesseract, before anyone could stop him.

When Tony finally took note of where he was he realised two things. The magic space cube of phenomenal power they had fought so hard to protect was gone, and he was surrounded. 

Son of a bitch.

"Good luck darling." a voice whispered in his ear, "I'll be seeing you soon."

And with that threat ringing in his ears, Tony let Black Widow manhandle him into a pair of cuffs as he calculated how much he could get away with not telling.

Judging by the betrayed glares of his brand new teammates, not a lot.

\--

The first night they met, Tony took Loki back to his house in Malibu. It was uniquely his and unlike anywhere else in the world. Taking a risk on his highly valued privacy was the only way this guy was going to open up, let him see more than that calculated smile. 

They got drunk on martinis and watched the sunrise, all the while debating everything from how to perfectly balance a missile for both speed and maximum destruction, through obscure corners of metaphysics right up to the perfect chemical components for lube. Then they went down into his lab, Tony made some changes to an upcoming range of surface to air missiles on Loki’s pointed advice and then they fucked. For two days straight.

By the time Pepper burst in, complaining about all the missed meetings and forgotten deadlines, Loki was gone and Tony was by his own generous standards a complete fucking wreck. The last time he’d let a guy near his ass he’d been a dumb sixteen year old just trying out something that would fuck off his dad. Needless to say it wasn't his smartest move and he hadn’t tried again. Loki had completely redrawn his parameters. 

More capricious than cruel, he seemed to adapt to Tony’s body with every hiss of pleasure and gurn of pain. Lips could be gently teasing his nipples while fingers pressed up, ruthlessly dragging another orgasm from his worn out body. He was licked, bitten, scratched, completely devoured and he loved each and every second. Loki’s need flamed his own and when he was too sore to take it anymore they switched. Tight heat and otherworldly beauty unfurling beneath him as the world disappeared into nothing beyond what they experienced within these walls.

Shaking off the most erotic, sexually intense experience of his life was harder than ignoring the body count of his most recent batch of weapons. Loki had branded him. Ruined him for taking. When the craving got too extreme and he caved, bringing some butch party boy home in the hope he’d scratch that itch, he wound up clinging to fantasies of Loki just to get through to the end. Then he’d kicked him out and got Jarvis to ruin his credit score for good measure. 

In fact, two years later he’d buried his wild weekend beneath a toxic but effective combination of drugs, parties and creation when Loki showed up again. Exquisitely dressed in a classic tuxedo during a White House after dinner party. Tony was supposed to be at the dinner, but he’d gotten caught up in blueprints for something special and by the time he’d come up for air this was the best he could do.

“Mr Stark!” the President’s wife exclaimed giving him a kiss on each cheek, “I’m so glad you could make it!”

“Yeah-good to be here-you look great. Is that Versace? Yeah it’s Versace. You work that couture.” he grasped a nearby glass of champagne like a lifeline and searched the room and that's when he saw Loki, tall, beautiful and untouchable. Their eyes met, his dick throbbed and ass clenched, hot flush moving up his neck into his eyes. There was no disguising what he wanted. Who he wanted. Loki’s eyes narrowed, darkened, and completely ignoring the British Prime Minister he strode towards them.

“Mr Stark.” he greeted in a low, cool purr that set his hair on end, “It’s been too long.”

“You know each other?” she seemed delighted, bright blue eyes flicking between them.

“We’ve met once.” Loki answered for them, his smile charming, gracious and practised, “It was a memorable experience.”

“Yeah, you’re the worst violinist I’ve ever met. Cleared out a room.”

She laughed, Loki looked at him sidelong and within an hour they’d begged exhaustion, shaken off security and were roaming the White House freely. Jarvis may or may not have been interfering with the security feed. They had barely looked at one another, it seemed too risky for that. Tony was on edge and Loki felt especially dangerous tonight. He stalked these darkened hallways as if he owned them. Disdainful as though he expected better from the supposed stronghold of western civilization.

“How do you do it Stark?” Loki asked as he prowled the Oval Office.

“Do what?” he was in the President’s chair with his feet up, pretending to be absorbed with something menial on his cell while his entire body called out for even a single brush of skin.

“You have everything. Money, public approval, strategy and intellect. You could tear them down and rebuild something better in its place.” he was looking out over Washington, “Why don’t you?”

“Because I don’t believe in compromise.” fuck playing cool, he shoved his cell in his pocket and swung round out of the chair, “Being nice to someone to appease someone else to get a signature on something completely different from when I started? Fuck that. I do what I want.”

Loki inclined a head towards him, black hair loose and inviting, “A noble ambition.”

“It’s not an ambition!” that came out more impassioned than intended, but now it was out he didn’t want to pull it back, couldn’t, didn’t know how, “You think I give a shit about these assholes? I make what I make, because I can, because I’m the best in the world at it.” he gazed into Loki’s emerald eyes, mesmerised by the layers and intricacies so close he could almost taste them, “You know why I’m so rich? It’s not because there’s a market for war-a battle of resources, or territory or any of that bullshit.” he stepped closer, desperate to smell him again, to feel that body against his own, “I am the reason nation’s fire machinery at each other. If you want war, you want the best goddamn war there is and anything with my name on it guarantees you highest body count and most dramatic explosions.” rage, pain and burning hunger to be known as the monster he truly was forcing a confession he had no idea he ever needed to make, “I don’t make weapons because of their war.” he smiled, it was a crooked, broken thing, “They go to war because of my weapons.” 

Loki seemed thoughtful, some of that black anger fading into the background as he brought Tony into full focus for the first time this evening, “How do you live with it? Knowing that through your creation others are killed?”

“By not thinking about it.” he admitted, “If I did, I’d stop working and if that happened I might as well be dead.”

Reaching out, Loki’s long fingers drifted across his brow before cupping the side of his face, “That would displease me Stark.”

Despite himself Tony smiled, drawing closer to Loki, the harsh press of his body, “Wouldn’t want that now, would we?”

Then Loki kissed him, one long, soul sucking kiss before sweeping Tony up from the floor and dumping him unceremoniously on the President’s desk. So hard and so desperate, Tony spread his legs in offering and surrendered utterly to Loki’s fierce passions. No time for teasing, his pants were torn off and flung aside, spit slick fingers thrust roughly inside his opening. Gasping with pain, he arched off the table, only for Loki to shove him back down, “Now now Stark.”

“Fuck you.” he gasped again when Loki slipped his fingers across that place no one else seemed able to find, “Do that again!”

“Did you miss me Stark?” Loki whispered against his neck, sharp teeth tugging at the flesh of his artery as though he was toying with tearing it out.

“Miss your fucking cock-sure.” he writhed, trying to relax, to get away, to get his mind behind what he knew his body was craving, “I don’t need more assholes in my life.”

Loki hummed and bit his neck, hard, while his fingers pressed against his prostate. A calculated application of pleasure and pain that shattered Tony apart as he struggled to breath, to get his head around that this was Loki, that he was here again, and they were about to defile the President’s desk.

“You’re far from ready.” a tongue licked a slow strip down towards his chest where his nipples were tight and begging to be touched, “I find I don’t care.” and he shoved his cock inside, allowing Tony only seconds to adjust before he started to thrust. It was exquisitely painful. A hard shock of agony that made him lightheaded, a brutal assault on his body and senses he just took, his mind settling as that pain softened into a heady, intoxicating pleasure unlike any he’d ever known.

Loki was just there, above him, around him, in him, whispering filthy promises and taking him apart as naturally as breathing. By the time Loki gripped his cock Tony was so lost all he could do was whimper his encouragement, before all that beautiful heat crested and he came hard as he had before, with one long, shuddering cry while Loki pressed his forehead against his collarbone and came with a low, deep exhale of breath. 

For a moment they just lay there. Tony taking each breath at a time as he tried piecing his shattered mind together. Name: Tony Stark. Age: Thirty seven. Place: Looks like a set for the Oval Office. How did he get here again?

“Where are you residing?” Loki asked as he pulled out, displaying far more care than when he’d entered.

“Good question.” his voice felt husky, “Did you remember to wrap it up?” he shifted and felt the ooze of semen slip between his cheeks, “That answers that. Weren’t you ever taught to play safe?”

Loki looked amused, both with the remark and the mess he’d made, before shifting out of Tony’s eyeline and moving somewhere in the room, “Are you just going to lie there all evening?”

“Pretty sure you broke me, so yes.” a pair of pants were dumped unceremoniously on his head, “That helps nothing.”

“Stop complaining and come along. The night is young and I’m barely done with you yet.”

Tony tilted his head from side to side as though weighing up his options before reluctantly sitting up and dragging his clothes back on. Loki was standing in the centre of the room, hands slipped in his pockets, watching and waiting. When Tony decided this was as good as it was going to get, he shuffled over, very aware of the come leaking out his ass and his new bow legged stance. 

“Seriously dude. You broke me.”

“I did no such thing.” moving quicker than Tony could track, he was suddenly in Loki’s arms, being swept into a deep, dirty kiss that heat him from the inside out, “Believe me Stark.” Loki purred against his lips, “This is not how I take things apart.” a kiss, a bite. “What we share between us now, in these fleeting moments, I treasure too much to destroy.” and with that sudden declaration he was gone, out the door, leaving Tony drunk and swaying with disbelief in his wake. 

The phone in his pocket beeped, and he looked at it in confusion. Right. Security. Escape the White House without being detected, then surrender to another night of debauchery. Or as long as Loki stayed around...and it worried him just a tiny bit that on this occasion, he kind of wished it would be later rather than sooner.


	3. Chapter 3

Shield interrogations were long, boring and sucked ass. For some reason getting across that yes, Loki was kind of an ex, and no he wasn't involved in an invasion of earth wasn't getting through. He was on the front line for Christ's sake. He almost died saving this goddamn rock and this is the thanks he gets? 

"Were you or were you not consorting with the enemy?" Maria Hill continued in a low, monotonous voice.

Tony's head by this point was firmly located on the table and no amount of caffeine would persuade him to move it, "No."

"But you knew his confinement was a ruse."

"Only because his invasion didn't make sense." Tony's voice was dry as gravel from repeating himself, chains clanking on the table as he gestured, "Why bring an entire army through a small wormhole on top of a major city a little bit at a time? Why not head somewhere more strategic, like Washington? Or Antarctica? Why let himself get captured just to rile us all up? Loki manipulated The Avengers into existence because he wanted to be stopped-why am the only one getting this?"

"Because you had insight on the enemy you didn't share."

"I had no insight." Tony rested on his chin and looked up, noting the two way mirror, the cameras, Maria's cool clean cut demeanour, "Loki was my most semi regular hook up right up until Afghanistan and then he vanished. Completely. I never saw him again, until three days ago when he threw me off my own building."

"You knew what he would do. Where he would be."

"Yes. Some of it, which is why I am seriously starting to panic. I need my tools. I need Jarvis. I need to figure out what he might do next and you keeping me here is helping approximately no one."

Maria Hill eyed him warily, "Why?"

"Why?" Tony laughed in disbelief, "Because once I snubbed him at a party, left with some blonde that had more legs than brain cells and woke up to discover Jarvis has been hacked-which is impossible-and blueprints for my shiny new missile were on the black market! I was arrested. Gang wars spilled over onto civilian streets and three countries almost went to war over it!"

Maria tilted her head, looking thoughtful, "I remember that." her eyebrows raised, "So he already has a history of hostile behaviour?"

"What? It's Loki. Of course he's hostile." Tony shook his head, that wasn't the point.

"You have proof?"

"No! Of course I don't have proof!" he sat up properly and clinked the chains again, "I came home after being interrogated-again-and found him reading magazines on my couch. He's an asshole that's great at double speak. One minute I was convinced it was him, he tricked me for all of three hours that he wasn't-bendy, sweaty and athletic sex might have been involved-and by the time I'd got a handle on how he could have possibly managed it he was gone! Poof! Next I saw him I was drunk and everything was forgotten."

And yeah-on reflection. Should have picked up the alien Prince vibe much sooner. The leather though. That was a surprise. A lovely, frightening and not in any way fantasy completing surprise.

"What's your point Stark?" Maria asked coldly, as though she could track what he was thinking.

"Loki is bad news. I've seen what he can do when he's playing and seriously. It's scares the shit out of me what he could do if he was trying because this Maria-this little invasion of his-is so not it you have no idea."

Maria blinked at him, "You're frightened of him."

Tony wanted to shoot out that he wasn't. Loki for all his crazy had never scared him but that wasn’t exactly true. Loki triggered something in him. A savage need to try something new, to break the boundaries of what was possible without consideration of things like morals or conscience. The things he had created when Loki was lurking in his life were incredible, and seriously fucking dangerous. Not just missiles. Surveillance devices, armour, guns that didn’t rely on something as passe as bullets. Tony might have destroyed everything after Afghanistan, including the prototypes to some of his scariest weaponry, but he kept the blueprints. Locked deep down on his personal server that he only ever looked at on a two bottles of whiskey night. Tinkering. Wondering what it would take to start the dominoes knocking into each other and bringing them all back to square one. 

“Loki does not fuck about-he doesn’t believe in doing something without at least eighty percent success rate.” he pointed at her again, memories of Loki, his sharp smiles and glittering eyes blinding out everything else, “If he wanted to end earth he wouldn’t have capered around on top of my tower where we could all get drawn into the act.” he narrowed his eyes and hoped that as a spy she’d understand what he was saying, “If Loki wanted the world to heel, we wouldn’t even see him coming.” 

Maria didn’t even blink. Instead she flipped the file closed and left, taking the Shield goons with her. Head aching, Tony returned to his usual spot and closed his eyes. There was a light drift of something that felt like fingertips on the back of his neck, and Tony felt the pressure of the cuffs soften. Which was nice, they were starting to hurt. Sighing a little as he felt someone’s heat lean over his back, the flutter of long hair and the scent of something sharp, and warm that never failed to get his blood pumping. 

“I will get you back for that.” a slow, deep voice that dripped playfulness and poison murmured into his ear.

Tony tried not to grin too hard, not daring to move his lips to reply in case someone picked it up on the security feed. Instead he had to hold back a jump and a yelp when one long hand slipped quick as a snake down his jump suit, tweaked his nipple hard, before departing with a faint breath of laughter. 

This must be what Alice felt like, Tony decided, not for the first time.

\--

Tony woke very reluctantly, and in a great deal of pain. There was a weight alongside his body. Two weights as it turned out. Rubbing his eyes, he groaned at the bright light, and jumped at the tut from the door.

Loki was there. Of course. Looking mildly amused, arms crossed as he surveyed the wreckage. There were two women in his bed, and he had no idea who they were. When he shifted, an arm on his chest tightened and two sets of legs knotted with his. Loki laughed a little under his breath and Tony gestured with both hands, “You just gonna stand there or are you gonna help?”

Loki pursed his lips thoughtfully, “What’s in it for me?”

“Nothing.” Tony agreed readily, knowing at once that he had no choice but to give Loki a show of complete indignity as he shuffled gracelessly out of two sets of long, octopus like limbs. When it resulted in falling to his knees after toppling out the end of the bed, shocking his system and as such his poor alcohol bruised brain, he looked up at Loki and glared, “What the hell are you doing here anyway?”

Loki tilted his head to the side, clearly taking a moment to appreciate the view before smiling lightly, “I understand this was supposed to be a birthday celebration.” 

Tony got to his feet and grabbed a pair of sweats from the dresser, “It was-thank you for your attendance by the way.”

It came out entirely bitchier than he’d intended. Loki and he had settled into the loosest of arrangements over the last couple of years. Yes, in the main they encountered one another in public. Caused trouble. Kept each other distracted for another two days before reverting back to type. Even so, Tony had just expected Loki to be there and his expectation was so stupid he’d gone out of his way to flirt as many people into his bed as possible. Two had stayed but he was almost positive that there were more last night.

Loki’s expression was chilly, “What do you think I am Stark? My life does not revolve around you and your utterly petty and pointless excesses.” and he spun on his heel, moving so quick Tony almost broke his neck chasing him down the stairs.

“Loki!” there were a lot more people in various states of undress here than he expected, lying on the floor, on each other, on every flat surface. It was sunny, hot, and Loki was about to leave again and Tony just wasn’t in the mood to articulate why that bothered him so much, “Loki! Seriously-I’m sorry!”

Loki was at the door and before he could think anything through, Tony launched himself onto Loki’s back. For a moment he felt the sudden reflex shift of Loki’s body and was sure he was about to get thrown to the floor. Instead Loki stopped, rested a palm flat against the nearest wall.

“Stark.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I was being a bitch-I just like, like you around-and I thought you’d be here-and you weren’t and it’s been three months!” unable to help himself, Tony buried his nose in Loki’s hair, “You smell so good. Have I ever told you that? You’re the nicest smelling human man I’ve ever met.”

Loki snorted and Tony knew he was out of trouble. Now that Loki had slipped his arms under Tony’s thighs, his position across Loki’s broad shoulders was much more relaxed. It didn’t seem to bother him at all that he had a fully grown man draped across his back, “Are you content there, or would you like your gift?”

“Can I include this as part of the gift?” Tony hedged.

Loki sighed in a long suffering way and said with some put upon amusement, “Yes, I suppose so.”

Tony grinned against Loki’s hair and was quite content to be carried from his trashed, post party sitting room to what looked like his workshop. Loki had been given permission to enter after his second visit to Malibu. Ordinarily Tony would have been more cautious, but aside from his ability to grasp and manipulate a fuckload of scary diplomacy, Loki knew science. Tony’s science in particular. Keeping out someone as smart as he was seemed stupid, especially as Loki was hardly ever around. 

“What’d you get me?” Tony murmured taking another, huge lungful of Loki’s scent, “You know I already have everything right?”

“Hardly.” Loki dismissed, “There are hundreds, thousands of things in the universe you know nothing of and cannot claim to even want before you can have.”

“Universe?” Tony asked skeptically, reluctantly sliding off Loki’s back onto the floor, “You think there’s life out there?”

“Of course.” Loki stated, as though he found Tony’s skepticism the height of stupidity, “This planet is tiny Stark, and there are millions of stars in the sky. Of course there is life.”

Tony nodded, shrugged, “Sure, okay. So?”

Loki flicked him an irritable look, and strode over to a worktable on the side, wheeling it over. It looked like there was a pile of something, hidden beneath a white sheet. Curious, Tony pulled it off and actually gaped.

“You got me adamantium.” he looked up at Loki, “How did you get me adamantium?”

“The acquisition may have delayed my arrival.” Loki said lightly, but he was clearly pleased with himself, “It was more of a challenge than I expected.”

For the second time that morning Tony jumped onto Loki. This time directly into his arms. He didn’t care how much was there, it would totally be enough for whatever exciting, dangerous thing Tony wanted to do with it. Loki smiled against Tony’s lips, one arm pulling tight around his back, the other around his ass. First thing he felt was the wall. The second was Loki pulling his sweats away and shoving two spit slicked fingers up his hole. It hurt a fuckload but his cock seriously didn’t care. 

Adamantium was almost impossible to get hold of. The trade routes were tightly controlled, petitions outside the military were hardly ever approved and he was about to be fucked against the wall by a guy who had got some. For him. For his birthday.

“Oh fuck-Loki-yeah, please. Loki.” he was sweating, and babbling, and desperate for the cock he could feel pressing against his hip.

“I do so love you begging.” Loki mused in a rumble against his neck, before suddenly jerking Tony away from the wall and laying him out across an empty worktable. It was cold and he hissed, given no time to complain before Loki suddenly invaded his body. 

It was hard, and messy, and brutal. Tony could barely hold his legs up and open against Loki’s onslaught, taking each vicious throb of pleasure as his mind spiralled with ideas. 

“Come along Stark.” Loki bit against his neck, “Tell me what you see.”

“Something light, and strong-ah-fuck-and dangerous.” he panted, his mind filling with applications for death and beauty with each savage press inside, “I won’t ever give it to anyone else. It’ll be for us and us alone.”

Loki’s eyes gleamed, his brutal pace pausing for a beat to just take it in. One long white finger tracing where they were connected, “It is a gift for you Stark.”

“You got me something impossible.” he dragged Loki down for a kiss, “I can only make something impossible with it.”

Loki’s lips spread into a dark, delighted smile as raven hair slipped loose and fell along his cheek, “I would expect nothing less Stark.”

Then Loki picked up the pace again and Tony’s mind whited out with the pleasure, with the possibility, as Loki rode him the hardest he ever had to date. Three months apart was too long. There had to be a way around it, Tony would find one. 

Or he would have. Two weeks after was Afghanistan, kidnapping, and betrayal. Then Loki was their enemy and it was too late. No going back.


	4. Chapter 4

Three years later and nothing. Well, not nothing. There was Extremis, Hydra and Ultron. Civil War. Things with Pepper were good and after a mostly worthy stint with The Avengers he was taking some time out. If running a multi billion dollar industry could be called time out. Or if being resident landlord of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes could be considered any kind of break at all.

Shield 2.0 the reboot had set up a sturdy facility in New England, but it was more military base than home, and despite his vague attempts at escaping The Scene, he still stumbled into the common area looking for fresh coffee at three in the morning to find Vision hovering in midair with his legs crossed, peering curiously at Celebrity Love Island as Sam explained who the hell everyone was, and made a valiant attempt at holding out under questioning about the purpose of reality television as a whole. 

Tony was regularly offered a spot and as he drifted over, sipping from life sustaining coffee, he was starting to consider it. Could be fun. But he was with Pepper. And there was only one ex of note, and he’d never really been that. 

Deciding he must be delirious if he was counting the Loki Trainwreck with seriousness, Tony went to bed. Slept. Mostly avoided nightmares and got on with his life.

Then he came back from a party. Hit up his private floor and was alarmed by his own sudden, sheer relief when he found Loki stretched out on his couch, suit jacket thrown over another chair, shoes kicked off, and flicking through a tablet with long, hypnotic fingers. It was a scene like so many he’d seen before the sheer normality of it was surreal.

“Nice of you to show your face.” Tony muttered, tugging off his tuxedo and heading directly towards the bar.

Loki smirked but didn’t look up from whatever the hell he was doing, “I thought it was about time I put you out of your misery.”

“You come to kill me?” Tony asked, pouring quickly with his back turned.

“Why must everything come back to death for you mortals?” Loki drawled, clearly disinterested in Tony’s conventional range of emotions at finding an intergalactic fugitive relaxing on his couch.

“I’m not sure-maybe because it’s something that happens to us. Unlike some nameless assholes I could mention.”

Loki shot him a look full of amusement as Tony handed him the drink he owed. A slow, hot smile spread across Loki’s lips at the recognition and it made parts of Tony’s mind and body that were supposed to be firmly locked down rattle and squirm. 

“It’s a little delayed, but acceptable.” licking his lips, Tony sat there as Loki did a quick, obvious catalogue of changes while Tony returned the compliment. 

Loki looked, well, good. The dark hair, green eyes, knife like cheekbones and wicked lips were the same as they’d been last time. Except he was better put together. No sickly pallor and restless, crackling energy. There was a healthy glow on his cheeks, hair still long, but tidy, curling over his shoulders with a small, discreet braid pulling it away from his face. Thor did the same thing sometimes. He suddenly wondered where he’d learned it.

“You-” Tony pointed at Loki, “look way less crazy than the last time you were here.”

“And you are missing a vital accessory.” Loki returned, looking mildly displeased, “Why have you removed your immunity from the sceptre Stark?”

“Because walking around with something that was slowly killing me seemed like a dumb idea, and I don’t have dumb ideas.”

“Ultron suggests otherwise.”

Tony raised an eyebrow, “Yeah and tearing down New York just because you’re in trouble makes total sense.”

Loki smiled, and settled back in his seat, “New York was never the point.” he said dismissively.

“The dead bodies say otherwise.”

“The dead say nothing at all.” Loki returned, sipping his drink as his attention slipped out onto the skyline and Tony fell into an unusual meditative silence just watching him. That used to happen sometimes as well. Usually after a round of alarmingly good sex, but there were rarer occasions when it seemed to happen naturally. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that Loki was easily as smart as he was. When they were in the same room the million voices swirling round his head settled, and narrowed, as though lulled by the knowledge that there was someone else just the same nearby. Like the way the water complimented the wind as it battered the shore. Tony didn’t need to catch hold of his thoughts, but he always rewarded himself by trying to grasp some of Loki’s.

“What’s coming, Loki?” he asked softly.

Loki blinked, and looked round, as though he’d stepped out for a little while. Forgot where he was.

“Loki.” he prompted.

“Have you heard of Ragnarok, Stark?” Loki questioned, voice just as soft.

“Norse end of world. Your responsibility, if I’m not mistaken.”

Loki’s lips twisted in irritation, “Narrow minded Asgardians. They cannot see the creation that lies at the heart of all destruction.”

“Maybe they would if you didn’t enjoy it so much.” 

“Well where else am I supposed to get my pleasures?” his eyes were sparkling again, voice faux petulant and mischievous, before he sighed and reluctantly got to business, sinking back down on the seat and flinging the tablet he’d been working on at Tony.

Setting his glass aside, Tony flicked through the files. There were graphs, profiles, maps and formulas. Hundreds of models that all seemed to be pointing to the same thing.

Glancing up at Loki, he demanded, “Is this how it happens?”

“I don’t know.” there was tension in his jaw, eyes flashing rage and frustration and he suddenly leant forward, face flooding with intensity, “Have you heard of Thanos?” Tony shook his head and Loki hissed, pulling up and striding away, “Thor is such an oaf! I have been filling his head with visions pointing him in the direction of Ragnarok ever since the Aether was found. I could not have made the cause of this discord more obvious had I created a big neon sign and handed him a map detailing breadcrumbs and an X Marks the spot the size of a Celestial!” his nostrils flared and he stopped, headed towards the bar and said in a calmer, more bitter tone of voice, “I had hoped he would notice. I had hoped your preparations would be underway.”

“I tried that with Ultron.” Tony muttered, “Not everyone was happy with my approach.”

“Yes, the noble Captain and my noble brother.” Loki muttered, just grabbing the bottle and knocking back a shot, “Blunt force instruments that find honour in battle on account of its tedious simplicity.”

“I did almost destroy the world.” Tony felt he should point out.

“You created artificial intelligence Stark.” he was leaning over the bar, grinning, delighted and so compelling all of a sudden Tony could hardly breath, “Ultron seized his own free will, tore it from your poor servants heart and set upon a course of utter devastation. It was...magnificent.”

Tony set the tablet aside and slipped his hands in his pockets, “How long have you been around?”

“What makes you think I ever left?” he returned, handing Tony the bottle, “You should not allow them to shame you Stark. There is a threat and it is better to try and fail than simply standing tall at the end, as though that alone can absolve guilt.”

“By the end, you mean The End, don’t you?” Tony asked quietly.

“Thanos is the Ruiner of Worlds, and he plans on seizing the stones. Reality will be undone and he alone will remain, in the eternal shadow of his love.”

“Love?”

“Mistress Death.” 

Tony blinked, “As in-Grim Reaper?”

Loki seemed to consider that for a moment, humming, “Yes. I suppose that would be correct.”

“And-it’s a real, physical thing? How does that even make sense?”

“Come now Stark.” he chided lightly, “You have started walking the path of the gods. You are responsible for Ultron and Vision. Two sides of the same coin. Brothers not entirely dissimilar in form to Thor and I. They are archetypes of choice. Michael and Lucifer. Cain and Abel.” his lips twitched, “Sam and Dean Winchester.” 

Tony snorted, “Of course, I should have pegged you as a fan.”

Loki shrugged lightly, “They are foolish, and much too lovely. Dean’s lips are worthy of odes sung in Valhalla and Sam’s abs.” his eyes grew heated and he smirked, “Well, I needn’t expand.”

“You’re ridiculous.” Tony grinned, swigging from the bottle, “But I get what you’re saying. It’s appreciated, by the way. Only Bruce got it and he’s-well-”

“There is no more time for angst.” Loki cut across suddenly, mood flitting back to business so quickly Tony was certain he was going to get whiplash, “The Beast is needed here. You will summon him and tell him he has a duty to fulfil.”

Ignoring the commandeering tone and the unacceptable things it did to his cock, Tony continued, “So Thanos is coming here?”

“Yes.”

Tony took another sip of his drink, nodded, “Okay. Sure. Why?”

“For many reasons, for none.” he shrugged, “Earth has a curious place in the galaxy, closely connected to hundreds of significantly more evolved star systems while being part of Yggdrasil. It is physical and metaphysical-the ideal place to start a campaign of destruction.”

Tony just looked at him, “Right. That-I don’t even know what to say to that.” he scratched his eyebrow, “So why come forward now? Asking for help? That’s hardly ever been your thing.”

Loki smirked and leant over, his voice soft and dark, “Because I know, Stark.”

“Know what?” he had hundreds, thousands of secrets. It could be any. It could be none. Clearly he needed to spend some time working out how Loki was able to just drop in like this and root around his stuff. It was getting annoying. 

“You have wound your code into every inch of Shield protocol. At one word from you all command structures realign, leaving you with sole control of international security. A safeguard against intergalactic threat.” his voice, fuck, it was dripping with poison and admiration, “A very clever idea that no one will see coming Tony Stark. An invisible throne behind and invisible organisation. Your Captain would be most displeased.” 

Tony stared at Loki, feeling angry and aroused, “How do you know that?”

“It is what I would do.” he smiled, “Why do you think Asgard has been kept away from Midgard all these years-concerned with in fighting across realms and the routine uprising?”

“You kept them away.” his throat was dry, “Why would you do that?”

Rather than answer, Loki crossed the gap between them and kissed him. It was brief, and almost chaste, and before Tony could even think about pulling away he heard the click of heels. Loki was gone and he had less than a second to turn around and sweep Pepper into an embrace as though nothing had happened. 

Yeah. Nothing. Try telling that to his dick as he pulled Pepper into bed and lavished her with all the attention he wanted so badly from Loki. It was fucked up, border line unfaithful, but he’d only ever had the loosest control on his libido to start with. It was Loki’s fault and as long as he kept this thing between them private, and mostly in his head, nothing would go wrong.

Seriously, he never fucking learned.

\--

An alert sounded in Norway, and the Avengers were deployed to deal with it. Cap, Wanda, Sam, Bucky and Vision. Tony kept comms running in the background while he drank coffee and attempted to reanalyse Loki’s data but it was turning out to be a pointless exercise. Loki hadn’t missed anything and there was no way to make the figures and outcomes change from what they were. No matter what the combination, no matter what their attempts at resistance, this Thanos guy was going to wipe them out. 

“Sir.” the urgency in Jarvis’ voice suggested he’d been trying to get his attention for some time. 

“What is it Jarv?” he scratched his beard and yawned.

“You may want to switch to the video feed.”

Nodding that he agreed, the holo screens he’d been gazing at for hours abruptly switched onto the action. Rubbing his eyes blearily, it took him a couple of attempts to work out exactly what he was seeing. There was a wolf, a huge, snarling black wolf the size of house and it was riding on the back of a motherfucking snake. Rearing high above the sea beneath them, the wolf and the snake growled and snapped at the Avengers as though they were mere irritants while the earth and sky churned around them. 

“Wow.” 

Another alert went off nearby and Tony heaved a deep sigh of annoyance. Thunder boomed, followed by a terrible flash of lightning that hit the snake directly in its side. The wolf pounced and careered directly into Thor as he flew towards them, both crashing into the water while the snake hissed and dived down with them, circling the fight taking place out of sight of the others. 

“Cap?” Sam’s voice, out of breath as he hovered above the cyclone building beneath them.

“Hold and wait.” Cap was terse and annoyed, there wasn’t much he could do hanging from the edge of a jet above the sea. Should have bought more air support. 

Tony scratched his head and looked at the live satellite feeds, overlaying them with geo and thermal imagery. They were in the middle of a northern sea and it was getting hot in the centre, a building force that was going to take out the sea bed and kick start a tsunami if someone didn’t act soon. Nostrils flaring in irritation, he brushed his hand across the console, took control of the quinjet fired an order at Vision and Wanda, “I’m about to do something dumb so one of you guys needs to cover the jet, the other needs to hold in that swarming mass of water before they tear the northern hemisphere apart.”

“Tony.” Cap’s voice was cold, full of bitter warning.

“Not the time Cap. Go sit up front with your boyfriend, this is gonna hurt.” 

“In position.” Wanda answered, ignoring them as usual.

“The same.” Vision agreed. 

Then Tony did what every chemistry geek had been publicising on YouTube for years and poured all the liquid nitrogen used to keep the jet from overheating directly onto the battle below them. Predictably gas gathered in great waves, the shock of icy cold and rapid loss of oxygen forcing them all out in one huge crash. Tony smoothly maneuvered the jet out of harm's way and watched Wanda and Vision topple as the wolf crashed through its bindings, landing directly on the jet. It had definitely lost some mass, now just an oversized wolf. Long claws tearing through the metal as though it were paper while Thor continued his heavyweight fight with the humongous snake monster.

“If you have any great ideas Tony, now would be the time to act on them.” Cap muttered as the wolf landed in the jet, shaking out sodden fur before advancing on two fresh, juicy looking victims.

“Working on it.” he muttered.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you.” 

Tony clenched his eyes shut, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“It’s much too early to show your hand.” Loki murmured, long fingers resting gently against his wrist and drawing it away from deploying the security network he’d developed without the knowledge of either Shield of The Avengers.

“They’re going to die.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier for you if they were?” there was no cruelty in the words, just honest curiosity.

“For me, maybe. For the rest of the world, not so much.”

Lips drifted across his cheek, “I’ll take care of it.” and he vanished from his place beside Tony, only to reappear on the jet a moment later. The wolf paused in its approach, cocked its head curiously and shivered in delight when Loki’s fingers tangled in its damp fur. Murmuring in a language so old there was no Allspeak translation, Loki calmed the wolf’s rage before kissing it softly on the brow. With that the wolf vanished from sight. Pulling up, he then jumped onto the torn out roof of the jet and shouted, “Jörmungandr!” over the force of the wind and the waves.

The snake swung its great head round to face him, hissing when Thor landed another blow on its neck. Eyes narrowing in rage, Loki flung out his hand Thor’s entire body was wrapped in chains, dropping him like a dead weight into the sea below. Vision immediately followed while Wanda made a foolish attempt at attacking him, only to find her powers disrupted and useless while Loki leapt gracefully onto the snake’s back, lips moving too softly for any audio to pick it up. Then, just like the wolf, the snake dived back beneath the water and vanished without a trace leaving nothing but disturbed waters and some shell shocked Avengers in its wake. 

“Everyone okay?” Cap called out over the comms.

There were some noises in response, none of them exactly positive in nature but no one was dead and that’s the best they could hope for after what they’d just encountered.

“Tony can you get us back with the jet in this state?”

“No. I’ve alerted Hill, she’s sending an extraction team via helicarrier. I’ll handover.”

Shutting everything down, Tony spun round in his seat and asked Jarvis what the time was out of curiosity.

“It is 7.37am Sir.”

“When was the last time I ate?”

“Twelve hours ago.”

Figuring that explained the hunger pangs, he hopped off his stool and headed up to the kitchen on the main floor. It was the most populated with food and he was hit with a sudden hankering for waffles. Beating together a mix while digging around for eggs and syrup, Tony hummed to himself while he let the simple pleasure of cooking food ease up some of the tension he could feel building between his shoulder blades. While the waffles cooked, he grilled the bacon and whisked eggs together in the pan. 

The general consensus was Tony sucked at cooking. Just because he’d developed a habit of setting things on fire when he emerged drunk with exhaustion, or just drunk, from whatever binge he’d been on downstairs didn’t mean it was true. Fundamentally cooking was chemistry and Tony was the fucking boss of science. There was no compound he couldn’t break down or rework according to his needs.

“Looks delicious.”

“You ever gonna stop doing that?” Tony asked, as Loki leant over and plucked a slice of bacon off his plate.

“Not while it still amuses me, no.” 

Loki was down to Asgardian casual, a loose fitting black silk shirt and leather pants. The only accents were the gold ring glittering on his finger and a slim chain around his neck, a medallion with nordic markings resting against the pale skin of his chest. He didn’t look like someone that had just monster whispered two of the scariest fucking creatures he’d ever seen into submission. If anything he seemed content, almost playful. A rare Loki even back before the void had spat him back out.

“You wanna explain what happened?” he asked, covering everything in maple syrup and sitting down opposite, digging into his food with perhaps more wanton abandon than he truly felt.

“Not particularly.” he shrugged.

Tony gazed at him for a beat before letting it go. It was a clear, bright morning and all the surfaces gleamed sharp in the light. It was quiet, without the Avengers. Just the howl of the wind outside and gentle hum of electrical equipment. The silence between them was comfortable. Loki seemed happy just to watch him eat, and Tony was just happy with Loki around. Alive. Not throwing him out of windows. Green eyed again, not that poisonous electric blue.

“I made something for you.”

Loki peered at him, “You did?”

“I never got the chance to give it to you.” he hopped off the stool and headed up to his penthouse, Loki keeping a respectful distance behind. Almost everything of value he kept in the workshop, but there were a few, scarce precious things he kept close, hidden in his bedroom. 

“Jarv. Treasure trove.”

A panel in his closet slipped open and a titanium panel vanished into the wall. It contained contracts mostly, family history, some of his father’s blueprints and his mother’s jewellery. At the back, wrapped up in a loose black rag were the twin daggers he’d forged out of adamantium. Tony wasn’t a sentimental guy, he kept what he made and threw away the rest but even after shutting down the weapons division, burying that part of himself, he couldn’t let these go. Allowing one last glance, a gentle caress of the blade, he thrust them towards Loki and looked away.

“Stark.” Loki’s voice was soft, full of something awed and grateful that made Tony shiver from the top of his scalp to the tips of his toes. A rare, greedy satisfaction that he’d got something completely right for once. 

“Yeah yeah I know.” he rubbed his beard, “You’re welcome.”

“Why knives?” he asked, keen eyes taking in each engraving with the ease of someone accustomed to terrible and beautiful things, “You were...unaware of my other duties then.”

“I don’t know.” he shrugged, “I started work, just thinking about you, and by the time I was done-boom-two knives.” 

“They are wonderful Stark.” he smiled and Tony had a flashback to the first time they met, and that bright, hot sensation of meeting his first crush at its brilliance, “Thank you.”

They vanished into that mysterious place where Loki keeps all his shit and Tony just stood there. Exhausted and throat dry after too much coffee and not enough sleep, and figuring it was nothing Loki hadn’t seen before anyway tugged off his t-shirt and jeans before crawling up the bed, throwing, “You need a written invitation?” over his shoulder. 

“This is the bed you share with your woman Stark.” Loki reminded him, “I cannot sleep in it, however much I would like to.” he bowed his head, a little sarcastic tilt of the head, “Thank you, for your gift.” and he pulled another vanishing act.

Tony scowled into the space he’d left, “No one likes a tease.” and told Jarv to get the blinds. The Avengers would be back soon and he was way too drained to deal with Cap’s disapproval, Thor’s exuberance and the careful distance of the rest. Instead he snuggled beneath the covers and tried not to think about the gnawing well of disappointment that Loki hadn’t stayed, and the implication that as long as Tony was with Pepper, he never would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's the first set of posts.
> 
> Let me know if they're okay. I'm so unsure of them!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for all the great comments and kudos! It means a lot!

The door at the back of the courtroom clicked shut and Matt tilted his head to the side as he listened to the sound of steady footsteps, pointed, but not heavy that stopped at the bench behind him. Matt gripped his cane and kept his body relaxed but alert at the recognition of a particular scent. It was sharp, leather, metal and something else, something other he couldn’t categorise. It was like stardust and waterfalls. Sunlight and shadow. Intoxicating, poisonous and impossible.

Matt had already wrapped up, it was the turn of the prosecution and it took a good portion of his self control to pay attention and track what they were saying. Matt’s client was a small time gangster, one of the Kingpin’s fall guys being framed for the murder of a city official. Wilson Fisk’s network was growing again, winding through the veins of the city and choking it like a vine. Nights were chaotic and the days a losing battle against a rising tide he was struggling to hold back.

It was getting harder, to tell the difference between the good and the bad. The innocent and the guilty. Wilson Fisk’s return to Hell’s Kitchen had undermined their first victory, the proof that seizing power through falsehood and brutality would not be tolerated. Manhattan was under a constant state of attack, from villains with inhuman powers and mutants hell bent on destroying the world. If the heroes couldn’t fight that off for good, what was the point of denying a man like Fisk? He was going to get what he wanted, one way or another. Why pretend otherwise?

Court was adjourned for the day. Matt gathered his papers, his briefcase, and got a cab back to his apartment. Throwing everything aside, he headed to the kitchen and opened a cold beer, “You want one?”

“Sure.”

Tossing another in the direction of the voice, Matt took a sip and leant back against the closed fridge, “How did you make it here before me?”

“I have my tricks.”

Tall, taller than Matt, over six feet easily and judging by his tread lean but strong. A smooth, British sounding voice but it was odd somehow. Matt felt as though there was something else beneath the words, just outside of hearing.

“Why are you stalking me?”

There was a gentle humming sound and Matt listened as he moved from his place in the centre of the room, circling the couch before sitting in the arm chair. The leather creaked beneath his weight. One leg crossed over another followed by another slow sip of beer. Matt could hear it moving down his throat, the steady beat of his heart.

“I’m less a stalker than an...interested party.” Matt raised an eyebrow and there was a huff of appreciative laughter, “Forces are circling the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen and I would see you survive the next weeks, because I need you alive, to help lead in a battle against a monster intent on destroying the universe.”

Matt sipped from his drink and crossed the room, “Pretty sure anything capable of that is above my paygrade.”

“You are a good man Matt Murdock.” it was stated almost neutrally, but there was a hint of mocking affection in the words,“Too few responsible for the keeping of this world have any sense of duty, or honour. They weren’t raised in a warrior's life as we were.”

“Hardly words anyone would ever associate with you, Loki.” Matt made a show of looking relaxed, knees spread open, one arm across the back of the couch.

“I have my duty, my honour.” he sounded icy cold, but his heart rate remained the same, “I do not have to justify myself to any living being here or across the realms.”

“You’ve killed and if you’ve been following me, you know how I feel about that.” he sipped from the beer again, “I don't care about your code if it precludes the murder of innocents.”

“During the battle, if you had been ready, if you had fought at the side of the Avengers-would you have hesitated to kill the Chutari?”

Matt rested the bottle against his lips and frowned, “That was different. That was war. They were soldiers.”

“And are you not at war?”

“No.” he felt the sharpness in his voice, a rare flicker of anger he breathed back under control, “I am trying to break the cycle of violence.”

“Through violence.”

“I don't kill!”

“Yes, and I'm sure that matters to the many men you have crippled.” he sensed Loki lean forward, “You are as brutal in your way, as I am in mine. The difference is I know what I am, what I am capable of, and what I am willing to do to ensure the safety of those that fall under my protection.” he leaned back again, “All I ask is you consider the same.”

Matt sighed, nostrils flaring, and he chucked the beer he was sipping at Loki, throwing his body after. Kicking up the table and pursuing with a flurry of attacks, all of them blocked and dodged almost effortlessly. Just as Matt had managed to kick the coffee table over and flick it towards the last place he sensed Loki standing, his apartment filled with the sound of ringing laughter and six more heartbeats. All of them thrumming in unison, making it impossible to determine the source.

“Come now Devil.” Matt almost flinched, the words shaped with a wicked intent he could feel in the air around them, “You can do much better than that.”

Tense, surrounded, he tried to go deeper. Beyond the beating heart and steady, mocking breaths to grasp that indecipherable thing that set his senses alive. It was hard, almost impossible, Matt could feel the tension building at the base of his skull but he remained still, trusting his training. Breath, focus, centre, get out of your head, feel each particle individually. Twitching his head once he felt a disturbance, it was almost a frequency, something low, organic that smelled like the spectrum and felt like the press of a knife against every vulnerable point in his body.

Matt pounced, swinging his legs round in a leap that connected, if only briefly. One hand grasped his thigh, the other his neck as he was swung back against the wall, cracking it. Again. He was getting sick of replacing this thing. Anyone else would it would probably look suspicious, but people were dumb and no one would interrogate a blind guy about the broken furniture in his apartment.

“Very impressive my Devil.” Loki was in his face, Matt could feel the cool breath brushing against his cheek.

“I’m not yours.” he hissed, a little unnerved by the fact Loki had such precise command of how to hold someone against the wall by their throat, he was pinned, but could still breath and he knew that he’d only be in danger if he struggled.

“Oh I don’t know about that.” there was a tease of lips brushing against his skin and Matt shivered, every single sense drowning in that low, constant thrum of something, “You deceive those closest to you. A civil face by day, monster by night, hunting down your enemies and leaving chaos in your wake.” they pressed against the side of his lips and Matt sucked in a breath, his skin tingling and numb with something akin to pleasure, “All that righteous anger and passionate fire. Oh yes Matt Murdock, you are mine.”

“I don’t kill. I would never do that.”

“We don’t need to be the same, that is a tedious Asgardian custom I have come to loathe.” a body pressed up against his, long and firm with a whisper of expensive fabric that didn’t smell exactly like anything made on earth, “It is your dedication to your own, unique path that I admire. The fact that you insist on being a hero does not interest me in the slightest.”

Matt gulped and rolled his head from side to side, partly to test Loki’s grip, partly to feel that spark flare once more against the delicate skin of his neck, “I believe in justice. What I do...it’s because it has to be done.”

“And the thrill you get, running from roof to roof, saving the many damsels in distress and wreaking violence on your enemies. They’re just incidental I suppose?”

Matt groaned when he felt the press of a hard cock against his hip. Of course that was a huge part of it. Driving his body to its limits. Air in his lungs, the crunch of someone’s face beneath his fist. Hunting out the weaknesses in a criminal network and taking it apart piece by piece. Fuck yes he loved it, lived it, breathed it, couldn’t seperate who he was at night from who he was during the day because Matt Murdock needed Daredevil, as much as Daredevil needed Matt Murdock.

“What do you want me to say?” fuck it sounded like gravel had been poured on his vocal chords, “I was trained to fight. I love it. I live it every single day and I-it would kill me to stop.”

Loki made a soft approving noise, “Good. That is what I wanted to hear.”

Matt sighed as Loki’s fingers on his throat softened, a gentle caress that set his nerve endings on fire. God he hadn’t been touched like that since Elektra and the impact of the last few, lonely months hit him all at once. The thing with Karen was sincere, and confusing, full of gentle overtures and wistful longing. They couldn’t seem to get beyond the idea of one another to the person beneath. Foggy had retreated completely, taking his unwelcome advice and much needed warmth with him.

“What say you Devil?” Loki rumbled against his skin, pressing ever closer, “Will you join me?”

Matt groaned and knocked his head back against the wall, bearing his throat to Loki’s soft lips, “I’ll do whatever you want as long as you just fuck me.”

Needing no further invitation, Loki attacked his mouth and Matt hopped up into his arms, legs wrapped tightly around Loki’s waist. For long, blissful moments they kissed hard and savage, rutting against one another like animals. Eventually Loki spun Matt round and carried him through to the bedroom, threw him onto the bed without ceremony and draped his body over Matt’s.

“What is it that you like, Devil?” Loki growled, long, skilled fingers tearing away his shirt and throwing it away.

Matt had worked out Loki was dressed in a three piece suit, of course, and getting it off while grinding up, kissing and having to work out whatever the hell he was saying was just too much. Huffing, Matt dropped his head back to the bed and looked up at Loki’s face, mildly curious about what he’d see, “I like, but don’t often indulge in, arrogant assholes with huge cocks taking me apart.” he reached out, resting his fingers beneath the heft of Loki’s dick, “Is that something you could arrange?”

Loki laughed, it was soft and throaty, “Oh my Devil.” lips pressed against one nipple as long fingers played with the other, “I can do so much more than that.”

And he made good on his promise. Matt never lost tracks of things. One sense down and honed as a weapon, making sure he knew what was happening at all times was how he stayed alive. Loki, however, was unlike anyone he’d ever been with before. Brutal as he was sensual, he tore away Matt’s defensives and left him a quivering mess of need. It would have been embarrassing if it hadn’t felt so fucking good.

“Shit-don’t stop!” he panted, gripping the pillows as Loki fucked him mercilessly from behind, strong hands held his hips, bound to bruise as he was used like a fucking sex toy to satisfy Loki’s insatiable appetite. When one of those hands reached round to grip his cock, lightening stripped down Matt’s spine and he cried out in ecstasy as he came again. It seemed to go on and on, a sparkling white hot pleasure that turned him into dust.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to fuck anyone else again.” Matt muttered, rolling onto his back and arching into the splattter of come Loki painted him with, humming a little in disapproval as Loki rubbed it in slowly, almost possessively.

“You’re human, my Devil.” lips pressed against his, “You can move on from anything given enough incentive. It is us gods that are doomed, our very natures making us immune to change.”

“You seem changed.” Matt reached out, running his fingers through thick, silky hair, “I remember the sound of your voice on the news. The cadence of your speech in Germany. It was different then from what it is now.”

Loki settled, sitting up against the headboard and pulling Matt to him so his head rested on Loki’s hard thigh, “How so?”

“It was heavier...the pattern following a classic rhetorical rhythm. Like Shakespeare. Confined by line length and syllables.” he shuffled closer, relaxed by the fingers running through his hair, “Now you sound lighter, quicksilver and adaptable. It seems organic now...I mean. Supposing it wasn’t before.”

Loki’s hand drifted down Matt’s spine, “I’d say you were observant but that would do you an injustice.” Matt gasped in surprise to suddenly find himself lifted and manhandled onto Loki’s lap, the used crack of his ass pressed up against the promising jut of Loki’s cock, “I experienced some unexpected trauma, and it created a faultline in my sanity that will never truly heal.” one finger dipped into Matt’s hole and he groaned his encouragement, more than ready to go again, “Another exploited it, attempted to reform me in his image and he failed. I have been preparing my revenge and his defeat ever since.”

Matt nodded and accepted the sentiment as it was intended, respecting Loki’s pain but not pitying it. There were mysteries wrapped in those statements Matt wouldn't pry into. Instead he reached back, lifted up, and settled back down on Loki’s cock. Matt hadn’t ridden anyone in years, and within moments of getting settled he wondered why the hell not and resolved never to leave it so long again. Maybe it was just Loki, but he felt powerful and desired, able to take his pleasure at the pace he wanted it. Slow, at first, getting used to feeling Loki shoved up so deeply and intimately inside him before that burn catches light and he pushes down hard, furious, as Loki thrusts up to meet him.

It’s as he’s gripping the headboard for leverage, Loki’s hands stretching Matt’s ass open as he bounced and moaned on his cock like a ten dollar hooker, that Foggy decided to make his entrance. Usually Matt would be horrified, but Loki’s hand is on his cock, he’s stretched full, sensitive and desperate for release so he arched his back and came instead. Louder and even more staggering than the three before and Matt couldn't give a fuck about their audience. Didn’t care about anything beyond the cock inside him throbbing, filling him with come.

“You could stop at any time!” Foggy shouts from behind them.

Heart pounding, spike of sweat and adrenaline that doesn’t belong to him or Loki. Foggy’s aroused and embarrassed, hands covering his eyes and muffling his voice.

Sighing, Matt lifted himself reluctantly from Loki, swung off the bed and grabbed a pair of sweats from a nearby chair, “Why didn’t you knock?”

“Because I heard-” he could sense a hand wagging, a disturbance in Foggy’s sharp scent, wafting it towards them, “moaning and I thought you were bleeding out on the floor or something!”

“I don’t sound like that when I’m bleeding out.” Matt disagreed, absently scratching at the dried come on his stomach, “I’m gurning and stoic. People have commented on it.”

Loki snorted a wholly unelegant laugh. There was a creek in the frame, Loki slowly unfurling himself from the bed before padding passed Matt towards the bathroom, pausing to press a kiss to his neck from behind, “I cannot linger, my Devil. I would have you join me once more in the shower before departing.”

Hearing that for _Get him the fuck out of here_ command that it was, Matt faced Foggy, whose heart was still pounding and he could feel another explosion building up. Counting down in his head, three, two, one-

“And since when do you fuck guys!”

Bingo.

“Since always.” he shrugged.

“You never told me!”

“Did you ever tell me that you fucked women?”

“What? No.”

“Then why would I tell you about the few guys I’ve been with?”

“That’s totally different!” he was getting spluttery and frustrated, “I mean-what? Was it just another secret?”

“No. If any of them had ever stuck around I would have introduced you but they didn’t so it wasn’t important.” he yawned and stretched, Loki’s come slipped from his hole and he fought the urge to shiver, man he was a mess, “Anyway, that’s not important. What are you doing here?”

“Subject change. Just like that? Really?”

“What do you want me to say? You caught me with a guy-how is that worse than finding out I’m Daredevil?”

“Well when you put it like that…” Foggy’s voice trailed off and judging by the slow indrawn breath he’d probably gotten over the shock and was actually paying attention to the mess Loki had made of his body, some scratches, a few bites and plenty of bruises, before just putting it away and getting to the point, “Look Karen called, she needs help with some investigation and apparently breaking and entering is one of your things so here I am. Against all of my better judgement, to ask for your help.”

Matt felt his nostrils flare, an involuntary gesture of anger he’d never been able to fully suppress despite years of training. They could not keep having this conversation. It was futile, and he refused to justify his choices anymore than he already had. He was getting sick of trying to meet Foggy halfway and getting nothing in return.

“Okay. Sure. Give me ten minutes.”

His mood definitely soured, and made worse by how good he’d felt only a short while before, Matt stepped under the water, grabbed the soap and rubbed off all evidence of his evening. Or tried to. Loki snatched his wrists, kissed him softly, and did it himself. Skilled hands ran over his body, soothing and functional. By the time Loki was done he felt calmer, more centred.

Deciding that Daredevil was probably too conspicuous for a routine break in, he pulled on his old kit. Black hood, tight trousers for manoeuvre and sturdy black boots. Loki only pulled on a jacket, shirt and pants, the waistcoat seemed to have vanished.

“I will be watching over you, my Devil.” Loki murmured, outside of Foggy’s hearing, “Be good.” and he strode away, those light, precision steps disguised by cocky languor.

It wasn't until he felt a release of pressure in the room that he felt his head clear a little. That low humming vibration vanishing with Loki. Next time they met he was going to get an explanation for whatever the hell that was. In the meantime he had friend stuff to do, keeping Foggy happy and making a futile attempt at keeping Karen out of trouble.

“So, breaking and entering?”


	6. Chapter 6

Cap was less happy than usual. Even Clint and Natasha dropping by for some bro time couldn't shift that dent from between his perfect blue eyes. Bucky was beginning to seem cheery by comparison.

After the awkward ‘taking-over-your-mission-without-asking-your-permission’ conversation was over, Tony assumed things would return to normal. Regret and bitterness overlaid with a thin veneer of civility. It got them through everything else, but after another resounding silence as he wandered through the common room he had to acknowledge something was different. When he lost another evening delighting in Loki’s cleverness Tony might have to concede that it was him.

Truth was it had been happening for awhile. The ‘Civil War’ everyone gloried in was rooted in Tony’s paranoia that something dangerous was coming for them, and the last thing they needed to be dealing with was rogue Hydra agents that couldn’t be trusted. Cap’s hypocrisy, his blind faith in a man yet to show any true remorse for the lives he had taken still sent Tony spiralling into a fury only a bottle could alleviate.

Sure, his hands weren't clean. Never would be, but at least he owned his crimes. Innocent people were dead because he had designed weapons that killed them better. Friend turned on friend in the name of ideology, because Cap believed Bucky was above the law. Unaccountable for the people he’d murdered.

They couldn't be in the same room. It had him itching for his suit, memories of the two of them standing together to destroy him flicking thick and fast through his memory. The knowledge that he had almost died at the hands of a man he admired and trusted above all others, still shattered his concentration at the most unexpected of moments.

Whatever delusions he’d had of peace, redemption and heroism had been crushed. Returned to the dust from whence they’d came. Now he had a mission, and he didn't care how he achieved his objectives. The Avengers were useful right up until the moment they weren’t. If he had to grin and play the fool, out of touch mad inventor that kept them in weapons that's what he’d be. Except Cap was paying him attention again, they all were, and that meant they were going to try and fuck things up. It was only a matter of time.

Covered in oil and fresh burns after a ten hour stint in the lab, he all but tumbled from the elevator and headed directly to the kitchen for some kind of nourishment. Jarv 2.0 had cut off his coffee supply so he was forced to function on some other type of substance. Like a schmuck.

It wasn't until he was already halfway through some leftover Kung Pao that the tunnel vision wore off and he realised he’d crashed Avengers Breakfast Bonding Time. It was a tradition started by Barton of all people. After the Loki thing when they were new and still suspicious of one another, unable to stand being in the same room for prolonged periods of time, Barton developed a habit of burning everything he attempted to cook. Many poor toasters lost their lives to his incompetence. Eventually they couldn't take it anymore and had to step in. Cap whipped up some heavenly All American pancakes to compensate for the loss. Bruce had this tasty oatmeal recipe with all the honey and nuts you could imagine. Tony just mostly dealt with damage control. It kept happening until somehow they all wound up in the kitchen at the same time, cooking and talking without the burning as an excuse.

Everyone thought Natasha was the world class super spy manipulator, but Tony wasn't so sure. Barton had a way of getting what he wanted as well.

“-Tony!”

Looking sidelong, Tony scowled at Cap who by the exasperated expression had been trying to get his attention for awhile, “Yeah? Can't you see I'm communing with my food?”

The fond, near paternal grimace of patience on Cap’s face sent a shard of ice through his heart, “Tony. I just wanted to know if instead of leftover saturates you’d like to join us for breakfast?”

They were all watching him, some were trying to be subtle, the rest weren't, “Nah I’m good. Still got shit to do.” and it he tried to leave, but somehow Thor had gotten in the way of his exit, so he patted him on the arm and tried to nudge him aside, “Good to see you too big guy. Let's do this when I'm not covered in hydraulic fluid and titanium shards.”

“You have not been present since my return Tony Stark.” Thor rumbled and dammit he sounded more hurt than angry, “There are questions I would ask you.”

Using chopsticks he gestured to the state he was in, “Gotta shower gotta sleep. After that I'm all yours.” Thor didn't move. Tony raised his eyebrows, “Thor? You aren't moving.”

“It's not optional.” Natasha stated, “You haven't been here Tony. We need to talk to you.”

Groaning, he hopped up on the kitchen counter and waved at them all, “Even though I think that’s total bullshit because I'm always here-it being my tower and all. Did you forget that? My tower? Anyway, I’ll be a good landlord and entertain your paranoia. What the hell do you want?”

“Have you spoken with my brother?” Thor implored, blue eyes big and pleading.

Tony chewed his chicken before shrugging, “Yeah, sure. He dropped by a little while ago.”

There was a clang of metal as Cap dropped a pan and spun round, all pretense of this being a normal breakfast dropped, “And you didn't think to mention it!?”

“Did you mention it when you switched allegiance to your psycho ex?” he returned, making his eyes big and innocent looking.

As predicted Bucky shifted defensively and Cap went bright red with anger and frustration, “That was different! Bucky didn't know what he was doing! Loki-”

“What makes you think Loki did?” Tony cut him off before he had to listen to yet another impassioned plea of innocence none of them believed. Or he didn't at least. He couldn't speak for anyone else.

“Speak clearly Stark.” Thor commanded.

“His eyes were blue. Bring up the footage Jarv.”

The blinds shut up and a holo appeared above the table, showing three distinct recordings of Loki. One from before, in Malibu. It was pretty intimate actually, Loki looking back coyly over a bare shoulder with a filthy smirk. Green eyes glinting with mischief. Another from the invasion. Blue mania and still present trauma. Then from the other day. Loki snacking on his bacon looking smug, mysterious and achingly beautiful.

“Spot the difference.” he gestured with his chopsticks, “Same colour as the sceptre, and Barton’s eyes when he imprinted. It’s where Ultron got the idea to replicate-and Hydra. Hence Mr Gadget over there.” he nodded at Bucky as lightly as he could, “One greater intelligence dominating hundreds of others.” he hummed, “That’s why it took one nuke to take out the Chutari. They were hardwired into one brain. Must have been Loki’s idea-has that kind of neatness to it.”

“Tony.” Natasha warned.

“I was just making the point that Loki was not completely responsible for the invasion, which if you recall I heavily implied last time.” he flashed a grin, “And he dropped by to let me know that we’re in some serious shit.” he glanced at Thor, “He was pretty pissed off with you big guy. Reckons we should be farther ahead in our planning-something about visions?”

Thor paled, arms dropping from where they had been crossed over his big burly chest, “I have been seeing Ragnarok.”

“Yeah and you didn't think that was a big deal?”

“Visions are rare! I have been consulting with sorcerers on Asgard about their contents.”

“Yeah sure. You ever get them before?” he put the carton and chopsticks aside and started swinging his legs, banging them against the cupboard. Wanda flinched each time he did.

“Get what?”

“Visions.”

“No.”

“Did Loki?”

“Loki is one of the most powerful sorcerers in all the realms and has been known to see the future on occasion.” Tony waited for him to piece it all together and tried not to smirk when his expression crumpled, “No.”

“Yeah. Run them Jarv.”

Across every flat surface, the hundreds of models Loki had supplied flared into life. There were a lot of explosions. Some slow creeping blinking out as sun after sun ceased to exist. Others there was suddenly just nothing. Putting them all on together was really pretty actually, in a nihilistic kind of way.

“What is this?” Bucky’s voice sounded raw, a little vulnerable. Like he’d seen something like them before. Interesting.

“How it ends.” Tony liked drama, so sue him, “Loki dropped by with a ton of data, and all it showed was the many, many ways some asshole named Thanos with a boner for the Grim Reaper is going to use the infinity stones to tear the universe apart.”

There was silence as they took that in. Watching the holos circle round and round again. Of course Cap found his voice first.

“Jarvis never alerted you.”

That wasn't what he expected to hear.

“Come again?”

“When Loki invaded the first time. Jarvis keeps you informed about everything, including when we’re low on maple syrup.” he turned to face Tony properly, head held high, stubborn and serious as ever, “Originally I thought he’d just disabled him but that’s not it. Jarvis didn't tell you Loki was here, because you’d never categorised him as an enemy.”

Tony hated it when Steve used all of that good guy emotional intelligence. It made him irritated and uncomfortable.

“It was a busy time Cap. Lots to do. Must have slipped my mind.”

“Nothing slips your mind.” Cap shot back, flushing with anger as world's exploded across his face, “You confronted him alone. It was all a show.”

He wasn't going to explain the many other things going on during that exchange, it was so subtle and twisted even he barely understood, “What’s your point?”

“You could have just told us.” he sighed and slumped back against the counter and at a gesture Jarv quit the holograms, it was suddenly much too bright, “Everything since Loki took off with the Tesseract-it's been about this. You’ve been looking ahead. Getting ready for some big bad.” he rubbed his eyes, “This is what we were fighting over. No rogue elements.”

Tony kept his gaze steady, let some of what he was truly feeling bleed into his expression and waited until Steve could face him again. Whatever he saw was enough to let some regret, even shame, creep around those cornflower blues.

“I didn't exactly keep my reasons a secret.” he let his attention drift towards Bucky, “Although I’ll admit finding out your pet assassin was responsible for the murder of my parents might have sent me off message a little.”

Bucky’s gaze was steady, his voice gruff but annoyingly sincere, “I’m sorry.”

Tony shrugged it off, “What are you gonna do?”

“Make amends.” he flinched when Tony’s gaze sharpened, all the rage and despair at the loss of his only family surging to the surface, even if one of them was a world class asshole, “I didn't ask for a second chance, but I want it. I need it. And it's dumb-you pretending that you’re anything other than what you are.”

“Oh yeah.” he hopped off the counter and shoved his hands in his pockets, “And what would that be sweet cheeks? Apart from being impossibly rich and devastatingly handsome of course.”

“The most dangerous person in this room.” he looked shrewd, assessing, as though he was looking for the best place to throw a knife.

“Me?” he made a show of picking out the three assassins, one soldier, one super soldier, one crazy ass witch, one god and bright red ‘being’ with unknown powers that had him surrounded in the kitchen, “I’m just a guy in a suit.”

“A guy that built said suit in a cave underground while strapped to a car battery, then blew his captors to pieces on the way out.” Barton helpfully reminded everyone.

Tony glared at him and Barton chucked an M&M in his mouth, shrugging.

“That was a one off.”

“You are an agent of chaos Tony Stark.” Thor intoned in that great, rumbly voice of his, “My brother picks his lovers with care. They are always worthy of him in some way…” his expression darkened, “Though they are rarely good.”

“I will inform Sigyn of that next time I see her.” Loki’s cold voice shot through the room. Everyone spun round, weapons ready and he threw them all aside with one wave of his hand looking impatient, declaring, “I have need of you Stark.” as an explosion rang out through downtown Manhattan.

Next thing there was a hand gripping his wrist and Tony was outside, in the middle of a crater, surrounded by ninjas and loads of inky looking tentacles grasping from the earth below them. In the middle of the chaos was a made over Spidey wearing a black suit and cackling so hard he could challenge Loki as the biggest crazy in crazy town.

“You got anything to do with this?” he asked, ducking as that Daredevil guy flung a billy club at a ninja behind him.

“Possibly.” Loki admitted, only looking mildly shifty as he flung up a barrier around them.

“Nice to meet you.” Daredevil greeted, not sounding remotely out of breath as he sprinted passed and directly into another surging group of ninjas.

“Hey!” Tony waved, more than a little impressed by his moves, “What’s going on exactly?”

Loki grasped a tentacle coming their way and froze it with one icy blue hand, twisting his wrist and shattering it in a deft move that in no way gave Tony a semi, “I may or may not have been experimenting with an alien symbiote while helping my dear friends here track down their enemies.”

“He was being an idiot.” Daredevil interjected, ducking a circle of katanas, flinging the end of his club around an exposed piece of railing and gaining the higher ground in an instant.

“I was assisting!” Loki hissed, sounding a lot like a teenager that had been caught out.

“Sure. Assisting.” man he had a dry sense of humour, and a sexy voice, and ass, and everything, “Your help is invaluable.”

“Sarcasm doesn't become you.” Loki responded primly, “Just keep those ninjas down dear, we’ll handle the rest.”

The hilt of a katana hit Loki smartly on the back of the head, earning the unexpectedly naughty Devil of Hell’s Kitchen a blistering glare which he ignored entirely. If it wasn't for a glimpse of his pleased little smile, Tony would have thought it an accident. Today was just getting crazier and crazier.

Speaking of crazy.

“So why am I here again? We don't have a lot of time before The Avengers make their appearance.”

Loki tugged him to the left, just as a tentacle exploded through the earth. Right where they’d been standing.

“Can't do much without a suit. Why are there ninjas?”

“Ex-girlfriend.” Daredevil stated as he flung himself overhead, “You can help any time Loki.”

“I am helping!” he snapped at his back before turning to Tony, “You need to talk to him.”

Tony raised an eyebrow at Spidey, who seemed to be having fun with smacking ninjas around, “You sure that’ll work?”

“Yes. You’re the nearest thing Peter Parker has to family. Make him take back control from the symbiote and I’ll detach it.”

“That simple?”

“Of course.” and Loki promptly shoved him in Spidey’s direction, then pinched his ass, “Chop chop, we don’t have all day.”

Tony spun round and pointed at him, “We’re talking about this.” before turning back to face the shiny new cackling Peter Parker, “Hey Peter. Loving the new look. How you doing? I thought we talked about that work life balance. More interning less heroing.”

Peter, or the symbiote or whatever cocked a black mask in his direction, “We think you are wrong.” the voice was doubled, oily and wrong, “We have much work to do.”

“Including tearing up Manhattan?” he rubbed his eyes at the boom of thunder overhead, “Come on Peter. There’s no time for this. I was in the middle of an interrogation with The Avengers and if they find out I took my eye off you for a minute they’ll be all over my ass.”

The symbiote twitched, “That is not our concern.”

“And don’t think we aren’t going to have words about Loki.” he raised his voice, “Y’hear that! No seducing well meaning innocents into a double life! Not when they have homework to do.”

Loki clicked his tongue, “He had a double life _anyway_.”

“Not the point.”

“You forced him to join you in a battle against his heroes.” Loki flung a couple of ninjas overhead, “I’m not sure who you think is the bad influence here.”

“You both are.” Daredevil pointed out, much too reasonably as far as Tony was concerned, “Can we finish this please? I have a date.”

“With whom?” Loki questioned, sounding nowhere near casual. And what was that about?

“A client.” Daredevil answered tersely and there was the definite sound of a fist connecting with some poor guy’s face straight after, “Some of us have jobs we need to hold down.”

“I said I could get you money.”

“The law Loki. I care about the law.”

“Silly, mortal custom.” he sighed, “Come along Stark-”

“Loki!” Thor boomed.

“Save your little friend. Now.”

Tony raised his eyebrows at Peter, “Come on Peter.” it was bright, he was cold, and there was a headache coming on, “You’re smarter than this.” he scratched the back of his head, and tried not to flinch when he felt the force of Mjolnir smash against something improbably powerful. Impossible, actually. Mjolnir could destroy anything.

Daredevil faltered. One katana slashed across his front, a flying star hit his shoulder and it was starting to look bad. Until Loki landed by his side, smashed his spear to the ground and leapt away as the rattling force threw the ninjas away. Thor caught him by the arm and threw Loki out of the crater and into a building for his trouble. Daredevil’s hands clenched into fists and yeah, Tony got where he was coming from.

“Look, I’m sure you had your reasons, but we’re in trouble now.” he gave in and pleaded, “I need you to wake up kid.”

The black costume flickered, and one strained voice forced out, “Tony..?”

Loki was suddenly there. Spear in one hand, defending another blow from Thor before kicking him away, and tearing out the black from Peter with the other. Next moment he’d danced away and the battle with his brother was back on. It took a couple of seconds for Spidey to shake into his senses and then he was back to back with Daredevil. Between the two of them they had all the ninjas mopped up and strung together before the rest of The Avengers could get their shit together.

“Nice work guys.” Tony said approvingly, hands in his pockets as he watch Thor and Loki go at it.

“They’ve got a lot of issues huh.” Peter stated, head cocked to the side in fascination.

“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Tony murmured, groaning in sympathy when Thor threw Loki onto the asphalt, and again when a lance of ice crashed against Thor’s armour, sending him spiraling into a nearby building.

“Shouldn’t we do something? Before they make an even bigger mess?” Peter suggested, somewhat hesitantly.

“Spider-Man.” Daredevil’s voice was low, and whatever he wasn't saying pulled Peter back into battle stance. Seconds later a golden beam of light hit Loki in the side, shoving him into a weaker position and disrupting the beautiful rhythm of his attack on Thor. Peter fired a web, intercepted Vision and blinded both him and Wanda in one deft movement. It bought enough time for Daredevil to pick out Barton and Widow-the only real humans on the team-and pull a hardcore ninja on their asses.

It was messy, and raw, watching one teenager run loops around the supernaturals on the team while Daredevil just used brute strength and dirty fighting techniques to duck, dodge and best Shield’s famous assassins. Trouble was Cap and Bucky were standing on the sidelines, watching, communing on the best way to bring them down and Tony wasn't prepared to let that happen.

Sighing, he rested a fingertip against the implant in his arm and pulled up a little. This was going to suck serious ass. Just as their little group therapy was going somewhere as well.

“Sure you wanna do this? Won’t the readers think you’ve just ripped off the movie?”

Tony jumped, “What the fuck!?”

Deadpool waved, then pointed, “That for you?”

The suit locked in flawlessly around him. Deadpool had a hand curled under his chin, nodding like an art critic, “Oh I just love it!”

“Tony.” Steve sounded pained as he trudged down into the crater, “We don’t have to do this.”

Deadpool clocked Bucky and howled in delight, “Oh Winter Soldier. I am comin’ for ya!” and sprinted after him, katanas spinning and clanging against that metal arm.

“I dunno. You started it.” he gestured to Vision, now stuck to the side of a building while Spidey used spare bits of masonry to deflect Wanda’s red mojo.

“Loki started it.”

“Loki’s an idiot.” three voices called out in unison from whatever super fight they were in the middle of. Spidey, Deadpool and Daredevil united on calling out the God of Chaos. Like they were teammates, or friends or something. The three of them too familiar to just be allies.

An icy cold wind pursued closely by frost suddenly swept through the area. Over the crater, across the sidewalk and all the buildings sparkled with ice. There was a hiss, and a surge of ruby red fire flowed from where Loki was standing. Cracking the earth, destabilising the battlefield and somehow missing every person on it. Apart from Thor, who was on his knees and writhing in pain as bonds constructed of something bright white and hot kept him down.

Clearly exasperated, Loki had a fit of pique and disabled the rest of The Avengers in a demonstration of skill that left them all cold. And kind of proved Tony’s point. That Loki had let them win, because with Thor down there was nothing anyone could do to stop him. Natasha and Barton were disarmed, weapons destroyed and bodies paralysed with a flick of his fingers. Armour and greater skill corrupted Vision and Wanda’s power as it had before. The pair collapsing in a heap on the floor. It was Bucky and Cap he played with. Let them get in a few swings before vanishing the spear, catching Bucky’s metal arm in one hand, Cap’s legendary shield in another, tugging them together and fusing the two. Cap tried to release his arm and couldn’t. They looked ungainly. Their attack positions now locked together, straining them awkwardly as they glared at Loki.

There was a moment of quiet. The captured ninjas looked as gobsmacked as everyone else. Then Deadpool broke the silence with a round of applause, “Oh bravo! A tour d’force!” he waved his hand and bowed, “What a show!”

Loki surveyed the mess he’d made, looking both annoyed and a little disgusted, “You are considered Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. I am your ally against an opponent you cannot even hope to defeat without my help.”

Cap and Bucky had lowered themselves to the ground, it was the only way to deal with what Loki had done, and feeling a little sorry for them Tony interjected, “I think you’ve made your point.”

Loki shot him a look and his fury was palpable, red surging through the cracks his magic had left on the earth below them, “Your friend would have raised his hand against you once again.”

Funny how Loki knew they were still friends when he and Steve had gone to lengths to pretend they were colleagues all this time. Maybe if that’s all they’d ever been things would have been easier. Tony wouldn’t have felt like his world was shifting when Cap picked someone else to side with, and no way would it have hurt so fucking much.

“I was only buying you time.” he pulled the mask up, he wanted to be honest on this as he sought Cap’s eye and held it, “Not the same as last time.”

Cap took a deep breath, lips tight as he nodded once, quickly, like the stoic little soldier he was, “Okay.”

“You can let them go now.” Tony said, Jarvis informing him that Shield were on the way, “Thor doesn't look good.”

Loki didn't even glance at him, “My role in this battle is non-negotiable.” and he vanished, taking his little team with him.

There was a sag of relief as the magic broke. Thor groaned, sliding to the floor and reaching out for Mjolnir. The Avengers helped each other up from the ground while Tony listened to Jarv instruct one of Maria’s minions on clean up. Good thing New York was used to shit like this now.

“So!” he grinned and clapped his hands together, “Breakfast anyone?”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter took for-ever! I kept taking things out and putting them back in, before finally settling on SOMETHING. I think it's okay? Feel free to tell me otherwise. All comments and kudos warmly welcomed.

Peter wasn’t entirely sure what he expected when he went to work the next day, but it wasn’t Tony giving an impromptu lecture on thermonuclear theory and how to apply it to kitchen appliances for the thoroughly enraptured and somewhat frightened techs in R&D. Peter figured his only option was to duck out, get a coffee and pretend to be doing his e-mails until he went away. 

Or that was the plan anyway. Instead there was a distinct cry of, “Peter!” and an arm locked tightly round his shoulders, dragging him straight back out the hallway as Tony called back to his audience, “Just borrowing the intern. Pop quiz. Making sure he’s all settled in here at Stark Industries.” there was a tight squeeze on the back of his neck that let Peter know just how much trouble he was in, “You know how much I love the personal touch after all.”

“Bad touch more like it.”

Tony shot him a look, “Considering who you’ve been hanging out with lately, I guess you’d know.”

Peter squirmed a little but let Tony lead him to the elevator and up to his penthouse anyway. He couldn't decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing to find the place deserted. Sometimes having an Avenger as backup could be useful. If they were on your side.

“So.” Tony poured a coffee for them both and settled at the dining table, “Care to explain?”

Peter shifted uneasily in his seat, “Explain what?”

Tony gave him a look, clearly conveying the fact he thought Peter was cleverer than that.

“Do I have to ground you?”

“You can't ground me!”

“I’m Tony Stark. I can do what the hell I want. Explain.”

“Euch.” he took a sip of coffee and ran fingers through his hair, “Loki recruited me. Like you did. Only with more prowling and menace and mixed paternal messages that have kind of sent my sexuality into a tailspin. The guy is like, off the charts hot. You know?” he paused, took in Tony’s eyebrow, “Yeah of course you know.”

“He’s also dangerous.” Tony returned, and whatever response he wanted from Peter beyond his face communicating Yeah-duh clearly wasn’t cutting it because his eyes got dark and the lines around his lips grew taut and unhappy, “I’m being serious here. Loki isn’t just some run of the mill bad guy you can play. He’s ancient, and ruthless. We’re insects to him. Do you understand that?”

Peter bit his lip, gazing into his coffee so he could bring his thoughts together and avoid the disappointment he could feel pouring off Tony in waves, “I-I don’t think that’s the case. I mean, sure, he went crazy that one time and blew up half of Manhattan but he pretty much admitted that wasn’t totally him.”

Tony frowned, “He told you what happened?”

Peter shook his head, “Not in so many words but whatever it was, it was bad. The worst kind of bad you can imagine, I think, and he was already kind of broken before that.” he scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably, “I know he’s dangerous but-I don’t know-he kind of did something. Claimed me, I think, as one of his and I know with complete certainty that he has my back now. That he won’t turn on me, or hurt me in any way.”

It had been pretty weird, actually. Coming home to find a six feet tall model of a guy sitting at his desk, feet up while all the spare parts of machinery he’d been tinkering with spun in an orbit around his head. Twitching and rearranging with each flick of his fingertips. For a moment he was too mesmerized to act, before the sharp grin and glittering eyes registered. Loki. Enemy. When he flung a web at Loki’s hands, ready to call him into Tony there was a shock of icy cold and Peter was pressed back against the door. The parts on the floor at Loki’s feet.

“What about the others?” Tony asked, and Peter looked up, shaking away the innate fear of being so close to a god, “Daredevil and Deadpool?”

“You’d have to ask them.” Peter shrugged, “But I think it’s the same kind of thing. We work pretty well together, actually, and Loki’s a good leader. Let’s us test our limits, be ourselves and draws us back when we go too far.”

Tony scratched his eyebrow, and he seemed more annoyed now than concerned, “That’s not the point Peter. You’re seventeen. You’re here to learn to be more than just a superhero and we can’t look out for you if you lie to us.”

“It’s not like that!” Peter cried, annoyed and frustrated at being treated like a child all over again, he thought they’d started to move past that.

“Then what is it, exactly?” Tony demanded, voice sharp, eyes blazing, “Or would you like me to guess?” when Peter kept his trap shut, glowering, Tony picked up the silence and ran with it, “Things aren’t moving fast enough here. There are people that need help, and taking care of them is important. Way more important than your life, and your safety. Especially with this whole new learning curve Loki’s got you on.” his eyes were glittering, cold and hot at once and Peter felt his skin growing warm and blotchy in response as he tried to hold his anger back, breathe through it, “Bet you’re feeling faster, stronger. Streamlined down to the basics.”

“It’s not like that.” Peter repeated through gritted teeth, hissing with irritation when the mug in his hand shattered spilling hot coffee all over his lap, “Fuck-argh!” he strode through to the kitchen and grabbed some kitchen towels and hastily wiped down his jeans, “We weren’t doing anything bad!”

“You were an alien symbiote only twenty four hours ago!” Tony cried, “What the hell are you talking about!”

That, Peter actually couldn’t disagree with. So he didn’t. Instead he gave up the fight with his pants and got to the point, “What do you want me to say Tony? That I’ll stop doing what I’m doing and be a good little Avenger-when the universe is about to come crumbling down on top of us? When you were the one that got me involved in this fight to begin with? I assume you can spot that hypocrisy on your own.”

Tony had stood up as well, rubbing knuckles across his lips slowly as the heat in his eyes softened back into a more familiar kind of warmth, “I’m allowed to be worried kid.”

Peter scrunched his eyes closed because he could deal with pretty much everything else. The anger, disappointment, even the guilt of lying to people that trusted him if it meant he could keep them safe at the end of it. It just couldn’t be that way with Tony. They had science, and snark and yes a pretty obvious Master Padawan situation going on. It was awesome. Apart from when Tony let the masks slip. No one saw the real Tony Stark, not anymore, not really. Whatever ounce of trust in people Tony had left was shattered when Cap split the Avengers in two. Peter tried not to think about it too hard, mostly because if he did he was afraid he’d get a stomach ulcer and never get out of bed again.

“I know, Tony.” he sighed and attempted a wry smile, letting some sincerity filter through, “But I meant what I said and I know it sounds insane because Loki is, like, the opposite of a good guy. Not even in the same ball park, or land mass even-”

“Peter.”

“Right. Yeah.” he shook his head, “I’m good. Seriously.”

Tony gazed at him steadily for a moment and Peter tried not to squirm again. In the end he seemed to come to some sort of decision, “Okay.” he pointed at him, “But the moment, the second something doesn’t feel right you let me know. Okay?” 

“Okay.” he grinned, almost slumping with relief.

“Great. Good talk.” with that wrapped up Tony was on his way again, phone already whipped out as he strode into the waiting elevator. It didn’t do that for anyone else. It was kind of disturbing how Tony had made even buildings recognise him as their genius overlord and everyone just acted like it was normal. It was not normal. It was also definitely not one of the coolest things Peter had ever seen and was totally desperate to replicate as soon as he had his own house. And money. For which he needed this internship, and new pants.

Pants first. Sentient buildings later.

\--

Loki narrowed his eyes and waited for the guards to pass, moving silently through the darkness with Matt at his back, just as quiet, almost as quick. If he was having difficulty navigating this alien environment, Loki could not detect it. Their window on this was small, and this impromptu visit to one of the Galaxy’s least inspiring prisons had not factored into his initial plans. Choosing Matt as back up had been an impulsive decision, but at the moment it was certainly not one he regretted. 

Loki’s magic was currently occupied with keeping them hidden from all surveillance, while Matt dealt with any approaching obstacles, darting in and out of the shadows as necessary to clear their path. After far longer than he found tolerable, they reached the isolation chambers and once he was satisfied they were secure, he set about releasing The Guardians. 

A circular room, grey, lit primarily by the five eerily glowing chambers all linked to a central panel that he strode towards immediately. Matt kept distance behind him, focused on the door they had just come from. 

“We don’t have long.” his warning was cool, a hint of mischief in his voice that suggested he was enjoying this little excursion far too much, “They were moving in patterns-I estimate eight minutes at most.”

“Thank you for that.” Loki muttered, as he broke through the firewalls with a combination of intuition and magic, “We will be long gone before that.”

“Good, because I haven’t ate since yesterday and I was looking forward to some Kung Pao chicken.” 

“You spend too much time on that hobby of yours.” he hissed in irritation at another blockage and forced his fingers to still for one moment, before feeling out another route.

“I’m a lawyer first and Daredevil second.” Matt reminded, a hint of cesure in his voice.

“The way you move is not like someone who decided late in life what they would become.” he kept his patience, flicking a look across the five figures held in glass chambers as he finally removed the artificial statis, “You’re a warrior born and bred. Words are your weapon, but they are secondary beneath cunning, deception and brute force.”

Matt moved, clearly prepared to reply when the stasis chambers jerked open and spat out the keepers of the power gem. The tree creature remained mostly unmoved, while Gamora and Drax fell to the floor and took long gasps of air, silently bringing their surroundings into focus, Peter Quill and his raccoon companion cursed like the scavengers they were.

“When you’re quite done.” he interrupted, “We need to leave. Immediately.”

Gamora was the first to react to the sound of his voice, and he had to fight the instinctive urge to sneer. It was certainly a faster reaction than she’s had to the screaming. Dragging unsteadily to her feet, Gamora gripped the edge of the console and peered at him with dark, dark eyes, “You should be dead by now.”

“I live to defy expectation.” he replied, the coldness in his voice intensifying as memories of his time in Thanos’ care rose to the surface.

“...Why are you here?” she eyed him distrustfully as her teammates got on their feet one by one.

“Because he is very close and we are running out of time.”

Gamora straightened and nodded. Which was fortunate, because that’s when the alarms triggered and the door at their back opened on a fully armed contingent of guards. 

Rocket cursed, then shouted, “Oh come on!”

Loki couldn’t have agreed more. 

\--

Steve ducked beneath Bucky’s silver fist, bringing up a knee that was blocked, shoving him back. Swinging his centre of gravity round, Steve pushed back, got beneath Bucky’s defences and bought them both down onto the mats. Damp, sweaty and out of breath he shifted only a little and received a narrow look in response. 

“Training Steve.”

“I’d say we we’re in pretty good shape.”

There was a twitch at the corner of Bucky’s lips, a reluctant spark of humour he’d never truly recaptured, “The world’s on the verge of ending.” he shifted a little, one arm coming to rest on the base of Steve’s spine, just above the curve of his ass, “We should prepare.”

Steve smirked and brushed his lips along Bucky’s neck, “You know how much I love preparation.”

Bucky’s fingers clenched, and suddenly Steve was flipped onto his back, his mouth crushed by a heady, fierce kiss. Since his return from Wakanda, some things about Bucky had settled. His moods were easier to read, and he seemed more comfortable in his own skin. As though he was seeing clearly again, no longer through a film of unspeakable torture and trauma. The one thing that hadn’t changed was his sudden mood shifts. Steve hadn’t expected this poor excuse for seduction to achieve anything. God knows he’d tried harder and gotten a hell of a lot less. He still lamented the cost of that suit. 

“Fuck, yeah.” he sighed, letting his body fall open as Bucky shoved a hand down his sweats and gripped his cock, “Just like that.”

Bucky made a noise somewhere between a sigh and a groan, “Jesus Steve.” moving aside just enough so Steve could get at him too, “Fuck.”

It was far too quick and dirty, they were tacky from working out, their position more about need than comfort. Tightly pressed together, biting and breathing, heat and pleasure spiralling into a break that left them almost numb. Body twitching with the still flickering embers of pleasure, Steve flung an arm over his head and gazed at the ceiling. Breathing and heart rate were already back to normal. Benefits of the serum. He was thinking about going again when there was the sound of someone dropping onto the floor. From above. 

Bucky’s reflexes, always that much sharper, had him tucked away and armed before Steve had the opportunity to re-gather his wits. Not that they helped much. Because Deadpool was on the floor, rolled onto his front, head propped up and watching them with rapt, amused attention beneath the mask. 

“You know people talked and I just thought it was all wish fulfilment but nope. You really are goin’ at it.” there was the hint of a manic grin, “Just so you know, I ship you guys so hard. I got yo’ back girlfriend!”

Bucky tilted his head to the side, clearly lost for words. Steve resisted the urge to run his fingers through his hair and tried to stick to the practicals, “How did you get in?”

“Ah c’mon Cap. You know a gentleman never kiss’n’tells.”

“Jarvis.” he hoped he sounded calm, because he’d seen Deadpool in action more than once and did not want to engage when they could desist, “Could you alert any Avenger in residence of our intruder?”

“I have notified Mr. Pool’s host.”

That did not sound right, “Host?”

“Petey!” Deadpool jumped up from his relaxed pose on the floor and all but hopped for joy when Peter dashed into the gym. 

“Wade! We said the penthouse!” he didn’t technically get out of breath anymore, but Peter was certainly flustered enough to give that impression, “This is not the penthouse!”

“Well I was on the way there when I heard all this huffing, and puffing and moaning and groaning and had to check it out.” he bent over and held up a hand to hide his mouth, and whispered in the loudest possible voice, “They are hot like burnin’. Seriously. How do you guys keep-it-down all the time!”

Peter rubbed his eyes, there was a bright flush on his cheeks but he was definitely grinning, “Because it wouldn’t be practical.” and he reached out for Deadpool’s wrist, “Come on. I have tacos”.

“Wait-Peter?” Steve called.

Peter was already out the door, Deadpool trailing willingly behind, “Don’t ask me. Take it up with Tony.”

Exchanging a look, Steve and Bucky followed. Taking a short pit stop for fresh pants. By the time they hit the penthouse, Deadpool and Peter were eating at the table while manipulating something on the holo above them. No one else seemed to be around. 

“Won’t work.” Deadpool paused whatever Peter was suggesting and ran it back to the beginning, “You missed an access point.”

“...What is this?” Steve asked, it looked like building plans but he was struggling with the ratios, and the oddly shaped looking rooms, “A lab or something?”

“Not sure, Loki didn’t say.” Peter frowned in concentration as he took another huge bite of fish taco.

“This is from the Trickster?” Bucky enquired, his tone of voice hard to pin down. Tense, but curious somehow. Not angry or alarmed. Steve never did find out what he’d been up to during the invasion.

“It is Asgard.” Thor’s voice boomed and Steve jumped, Thor had zero concept of an ‘indoor voice’, “Why do you have images of the palace?”

Peter wiped his fingers clean and shrugged, “Loki wants us to find ways to make it defensible.”

Thor strode over, he was in his gear, Mjolnir swinging at his hip, “Asgard is guarded by the most elite military force in the universe.”

Deadpool snorted once, then snorted again when he caught the outraged look on Thor’s face, “Honey don’t matter how good your boys are. Y’all’s got a weak spot.” once again Steve could sense that shit eating grin beneath the mask, “We just gotta stop that baby being exploited and rubbed up in all the wrong way.”

Thor scowled even harder, slammed his hand on the table and the holo vanished. Steve rubbed his forehead, sure he could feel a headache brewing as Thor leaned as far as he could into Deadpool’s face and demanded with every inch of indignation he could muster, “These games stop now.”

Deadpool’s fingers stepped closer to a bowl of nachos, and he quickly scooped them up and shoved them into his mouth beneath the mask, deftly ducking and pushing to his feet when Thor attempted to grab him, “Woah. Hands off big guy.”

“Where is my brother!?” Thor’s face was flooded red with with rage, blue eyes glittering with shocks like lightning as clouds gathered overhead, “I will endure this foolishness no longer!”

Thunder boomed outside and Deadpool gave an exaggerated flinch, “Hey, hey. Maybe you wanna calm down there just a little. Getting all riled up never helped anyone.”

Clearly through with words, Thor gripped Mjolnir and attacked. Deadpool shrieked and dived out the way, ducking behind the end of the couch and calling out, “Don’t you think we should talk about this?”

Instead lightning shattered all the glass, forcing them all to cover. Deadpool screamed. Peter pushed up from the floor and his face was white, first with hurt, then with something much uglier when the room fell silent and the smell of burning meat filtered through the penthouse. Before either he or Bucky could stop him, Peter had slipped beneath Thor’s defences and kicked Mjolnir out of his hand, keeping low as it crashed into the floor behind him. 

“Do not make me hurt you Little Spider.” Thor rumbled, chest heaving with anger and the beginnings of bloodlust, “I demand my brother.”

“Why?” Peter’s voice was low, the edges of the words softening into something more, almost threatening as he held form, unmoved by the wind and rain.

Thor clearly didn’t understand the question, and moments like this reminded Steve forcefully that he was more than human. A god and a prince, accustomed to having his every demand answered for thousands of years. Being questioned was clearly doing something to the hard wiring of his brain, and it was making Steve very nervous. Slowly, he and Bucky fanned out. It was close quarters and Thor was impossibly strong but together they might just be able to keep him off Peter long enough to see sense. 

“Loki is my brother.” Thor spoke as though it was Truth, something irrefutable like air or sky, shades of everything that they had ever been colouring his tone. Awed and possessive at once, hurt, happy and twisted through with a kind of need Steve could understand only a little. What he felt for Bucky was of the same ilk, but younger, somehow. They had the chance to stop it from souring into whatever fucked up co-dependency had Loki and Thor wanting to kill each other on a regular basis. 

“I’m not bringing him here.” Peter stated calmly, dark eyes flickering beneath the increasing bright flashes of lightning, “To you.”

Thor roared then, called for Mjolnir but Peter was already on the move. What he lacked in strength, he sure made up for in speed and dexterity. The weather outside became more fierce, roaring wind and sleet whirling around as Thor and Peter fought. Steve and Bucky kept trying to intervene, only for Peter to pin them up against the wall near the elevator, out the way as he ducked and dodged, keeping Thor out of range. For a moment Steve wondered what the hell he was doing, until he skidded to the opposite side of the room, kicking at a nerve on Thor’s wrist on the way so he was forced to drop the hammer. Thor didn't even have the opportunity to reach for it again before Deadpool shoved him out the window. 

“I’m not sure that’s going to calm him down.” Steve stated, as Mjolnir skidded from it’s place on the floor and outside, chasing its master.

Peter suddenly flung himself at Deadpool, who seemed surprised at first before tentatively accepting the embrace, “Hey-Petey. It’s fine. Good as new. Don’t-you don’t need to be upset.”

“That’s not the point!” he pulled back, dark eyes blazing with anger, “Thor didn’t know that-and he’s a god-and-”

Steve’s struggle against the web was not going well, neither was Bucky’s and Thor was going to be back even angrier than before. Deadpool at least seemed to sense the danger, he’d managed to coax Peter behind him while he dug into that pouch on his waist. Some cuddly toys, a grenade and copper wire were dumped on the floor before he was armed with a katana and a gun. 

“S’okay Petey. I got this.”

He managed to fling Peter away as Thor crashed through the side wall, face transformed with an ancient berserker rage that froze Steve’s gut. This had gone way, way too far. 

“Peter!” he hissed, “You need to let us down!”

Flinging two adamantium knives at them, Peter was prone, watching the battle as Thor tried to crush Deadpool with single minded intent. Despite putting up a worthy defense, Deadpool was not a god and aside from some increased reflexes and incredible healing, he was a guy. They managed to get free just in time, tackling Thor to the floor before he had the chance to cave Deadpool’s head in. 

“Thor. You need to calm down!” Steve hissed as he struggled to hold down one arm, Bucky hissing as a knee hit him in the gut, “This isn’t helping!”

Thor roared again, used a shock of Mjolnir to send them flying off him as he got to his feet, power crackling in the air as he spun on the spot taking them in one by one, red cloak snapping in the wind. Steve tried to think, there had to be a way to stop this, but Thor was ancient, and powerful and had been tearing through his enemies since before the Old World was young. They didn’t stand a chance against this. The universe was under threat, and he was going to die because a guy that was supposed to be his friend needed to see his fucked up little brother. 

Deadpool returned to his feet and Thor was there, ready to summon more lightening when a huge black wolf suddenly knocked him aside. A moment later there was a flash of light, the skies were clear and in the silence that followed they all turned at the distinct sound of boots crunching over shattered glass. Thor didn’t seem to notice, he was busy struggling, and failing to overcome the creature's weight, teeth bared and thrashing, “Fenrir! I will tear you limb from limb!”

“You wouldn’t dare.” 

Steve blinked, chilled by the low, icy hiss spoken by the man advancing slowly towards them. It seemed to do something to Thor. All at once he ceased his struggle, craning his head to get a glimpse of whoever this other guy was. He visibly gulped, “Jormungandr.”

Steve shared another quick glance with Bucky. No way that guy was could be the snake, but the wolf was familiar. Acid green eyes and thick, wild fur with those sharp, sharp teeth. 

“Are you quite done with your tantrum?” the second man, Jormungandr, questioned. A familiar lilt in his condescension that was not putting Steve anymore at ease with this situation. 

Though it clearly pained him to do it, Thor glanced back up at the wolf, Fenrir, who growled in his face before nodding once, tightly. Pressing his nose deep into Thor’s neck, the wolf stepped back delicately enough before padding around the penthouse. Jormungandr watched for a moment, before turning to his uncle, hands sliding casually into his pockets while he watched Thor compose himself. It wasn’t going well. If Steve didn’t know any better, he’d say he was flustered. 

“You are not supposed to walk the earth. Father-”

“Nothing is final.” Jormungandr cut across him, tone icy and imperious, “Not even for the likes of us.”

“Woah.” Deadpool swung his katana into the sheath on his back, “That is one hell of a resemblance.”

That, Steve wholeheartedly agreed with. Jormungandr was tall, fine boned and long limbed. Willowy, he moved with a slow, sensuous grace that made Steve’s hand itch for a shield. Dressed in tight black jeans, heavy boots and white t-shirt, he had a rocky, edgy kind of decadence going on. A few amulettes on leather cords hung round his neck, and Steve was sure he spotted black nail polish and long fingers adorned with silver rings before they had been concealed. The only clear difference as far as he could tell was the auburn shade of his hair, so distinct from Loki’s black. It was swept back from his head, but there was no hiding the loose, rich waves that would no doubt fall around his beautiful face after strenuous activity, like exercise, or killing, or fucking.

Geez. That was not a line of thought he wanted to pursue. Having Bucky in his bed was one fucked up, now only occasionally psychotic mess enough.

“I apologise for my uncle’s behaviour.” he moved closer to Deadpool, hips rolling at each step, “My father is currently indisposed, and he charged my brother and I with your protection in the meantime.” he shot a look over his shoulder at Thor, “He thought there was a risk of our dearest uncle forgetting friend from foe when making his childish demands.”

Fenrir growled again, almost as though in agreement as he slunk towards Bucky, head down and visibly sniffing the air around him.

“No harm done.” Deadpool shrugged, before throwing an arm over Peter’s shoulders and flouncing away, “This was great! We should do it again sometime!” 

Another piece of glass shattered to the floor as they got into the lift. Steve cringed. Tony was not going to be happy about this. There was a strict ban on fighting in the living areas. He promised that next time it happened it’d come out of their training budget, and call Steve spoiled but he’d gotten used to having punching bags that he couldn’t beat the stuffing out of and were so soft his knuckles didn’t even graze. They were always the first to go when Tony was pissed off with them. 

“Jorg-”

“You do not speak to me.” this time there was a definite hiss in the words as he reared round from the skyline he had been contemplating, “Father will come to you when he is ready, and not a second before. Do not threaten his mortals. We will not hold back a second time.”

Thor seemed to pale, and everyone shot round at the sound of Tony talking to Jarvis. It sounded like he was bouncing theories around, talking a hundred miles an hour and casually gesturing with a wrench while he checked messages on his phone. It wasn’t until he reached the kitchen and noted the smashed up coffee machine that the rest of the world snapped into focus. 

Although Steve didn’t understand it three quarters of the time, he’d always enjoyed watching Tony think. Even with all the craziness and complications that had come with the serum, Steve knew that he was a guy of simple needs. He wanted to fight because it was the right thing to do, so he could protect the people he cared about. Because he hated the idea of Bucky being out there, fighting on the frontline alone. Tony was someone he could barely relate to at the best of times. Too quick, too sharp, his motivations obscure and unpredictable. But compelling, somehow, open about the things that broke him and determined to do better despite his own demons. Watching him piece something together at lightening speed, that click, click, click of gears sliding into place before whirring off in another direction entirely was something he just admired-with the right amount of fear and awe. 

They had gone at each other once before, and at the time Tony had been compromised. Undecided in his loyalty, and freshly betrayed. If he had found out some other way and had the opportunity to plan his revenge instead of lashing out instinctively Steve dreaded to think what could have happened instead. 

The wolf padded towards him, and Tony clocked it, before addressing Jormungandr, “Is he safe?” an eyebrow was raised in response and Tony huffed, rolled his eyes, “What are the chances of him coming back still smoking?”

“High.” Jormungandr answered, his tone clipped, but there was something speculative in his expression as he took Tony in.

“Will he accept help?” Tony’s expression was terse as he watched the wolf prowl in front of him.

“It may be too late for that.” 

Tony flicked his eyebrows up, smile tightening into a grimace before his expression grew serious, “Okay. You get him a goddamn message. He is not half assing this anymore. He wants our help to, he starts sharing his plans. And soon. Otherwise I do it without him.”

Jormungandr inclined his head, “I could not agree more Tony Stark. Come along brother. We have business elsewhere.”

Both figures vanished from their spot, a trick no doubt learned from Loki. Steve rubbed the back of his head and sighed, “Anything you need to share with us Tony?”

Dark eyes fixed on him, hard and unforgiving and for a moment Steve forgot he wasn’t the focus of Tony’s anger and almost stepped back, “Call your allies. We meet on neutral ground. SHEILD’s new airship. Forty eight hours. I’ll deal with the UN.” he observed the penthouse, “And clean this the fuck up. People live here you know?”

Steve threw him a rueful smile, and Tony paused in his constant motion for just a split second to appreciate it, “We got it.”

“Great. Good. See you for dinner.” and like that Tony was gone again, back to the elevator, his discussion with Jarvis picking up as though there hadn’t been an interruption. Bucky, ever discreet, threw a broom pointedly at Thor with his metal arm so hard the force of catching it with one hand sent him back a few steps. For a moment Thor looked like he was about to fight back, but Bucky pointedly righted a couch that had gone flying and he shut up. Clean up duty for the Prince of Asgard. Who knew?


End file.
